; 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Getty  Research  Institute 


https://archive.org/details/sevenwondersofanOObank_O 


By  Edgar  J.  Banks, 


Bismya. 

Seven  Wonders  of  the  Ancient  World. 


Reconstruction  of  the  Olympian  Zeus 


The  Seven  Wonders 

of 

The  Ancient  World 


By 

Edgar  J.  Banks,  Ph.D. 

Field  Director  of  the  Recent  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the 
University  of  Chicago 

Author  of  Bis  my  a or  the  Lost  City  of  Adab,  The  Bible  and  the 
Spade , An  Armenian  Princess,  etc. 


With  34  Illustrations 


G.  P.  Putnam’s  Sons 
New  York  and  London 
Gbe  tmlefeerbocfter  press 
1916 


Copyright,  1916 
BY 

EDGAR  J.  BANKS 


Zbc  fmicfcetfcocftet  press,  Hew  ^orfe 


Preface 


THE  editor  of  a monthly  periodical  once 
desired  a short  article  on  the  Seven  Won- 
ders of  the  Ancient  World.  To  write  it 
seemed  an  easy  task,  for  long  wanderings  in  the 
Orient  had  led  me  to  the  sites  of  several  of  these 
ancient  marvels,  yet  when  I attempted  to  name 
them,  I could  not.  Dismayed  at  my  ignorance, 
I asked  my  learned  friends  to  name  them;  they 
succeeded  no  better.  I consulted  the  encyclope- 
dias only  to  find  that  some  of  the  ancient  wonders 
were  not  considered  worthy  of  a brief  descriptive 
paragraph;  the  information  given  of  others  was 
meagre  and  antiquated.  Confident  that  scores 
of  authors  must  have  been  inspired  to  write 
books  about  them,  I searched  through  the  largest 
of  the  libraries.  The  discovery  of  two  books  was 
the  reward.  One  was  a dissertation  in  Latin  by  a 
student  in  his  quest  for  a university  degree;  the 

other,  a generation  old,  related  the  familiar  facts 

iii 


IV 


PREFACE 


surviving  from  ancient  times;  it  ignored  the  valu- 
able results  of  modern  research. 

Early  travellers  were  fond  of  describing  the 
Seven  Wonders;  the  generations  of  the  past  two 
thousand  years  have  talked  about  them  and  won- 
dered, but  it  is  to  the  archaeological  explorer  of 
the  past  few  decades  that  we  are  indebted  for  our 
more  trustworthy  information.  The  material 
collected  for  the  contemplated  magazine  article 
expanded  wonderfully.  Generally  accepted  fan- 
cies were  found  to  be  erroneous.  The  old  familiar 
pictures  of  how  it  was  thought  the  Seven  Won- 
ders ought  to  have  looked  were  chiefly  imaginary. 
Research  among  their  ruins  has  not  only  revealed 
their  history,  and  made  their  reconstruction 
possible,  but  has  taught  us  why  they  were  the 
wonders  of  the  world. 

About  two  centuries  before  the  Christian  era, 
in  the  Palestinian  city  of  Sidon,  lived  a man  named 
Antipater.  He  was  the  Baedeker  of  antiquity, 
the  author  of  a guide-book.  Perhaps  he  was  not  the 
first  to  attempt  to  point  out  to  the  traveller 
the  things  which  he  should  not  fail  to  see,  but  to 
him  may  be  traced  the  list  of  the  objects  which 
won  the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  which  was 


PREFACE 


v 


copied  by  other  writers  until  it  became  authorita- 
tive. 

Discriminating  indeed  was  Antipater  in  confin- 
ing his  list  of  wonders  to  the  sacred  number  of 
seven,  when  it  might  well  have  been  extended  to 
seventy  times  seven.  Nor  was  he  prejudiced  in 
favour  of  any  one  land  or  age.  Europe,  glorying 
in  the  culture  of  Athens  and  Rome,  could  claim 
but  one  of  the  wonders.  Three  were  in  Asia,  two 
in  Africa,  and  one  on  an  island  in  the  sea.  In 
point  of  time  they  represent  a period  of  about 
three  thousand  years.  The  list  is  as  follows : 

The  Pyramid  of  Khufu,  from  about  2900  B.C., 
or  earlier. 

The  Walls  of  Babylon,  from  between  605  and 
562  B.C. 

The  Statue  of  the  Olympian  Zeus,  from  about 
470  to  462  b . c. 

The  Temple  of  Diana,  from  after  356  b.c. 

The  Tomb  of  King  Mausolus,  from  about  353 

B.C. 

The  Colossus  of  Rhodes,  from  280  B.C. 

The  Pharos  of  Alexandria,  from  247  B.C. 

It  is  a common  weakness  of  modern  man  to 
imagine  that  his  own  age  and  his  own  country  has 


PREFACE 


progressed  beyond  all  others,  yet  he  is  never  more 
amazed  than  when  he  wanders  among  the  ruins 
at  Karnak,  or  looks  up  to  the  great  stones  high 
in  the  temple  wall  at  Baalbek,  or,  standing  upon 
the  Athenian  Acropolis,  he  pictures  the  glory  that 
was  Greece,  or  when  he  sees  the  magic  touch  of 
the  creator  of  the  Venus  of  Milo:  yet  none  of  these 
wonderful  things  were  accounted  worthy  of  a 
place  among  the  Seven  Wonders.  The  deeper 
the  excavator  delves  into  the  ruins  of  the  past 
ages,  the  more  he  realizes  that  the  ancients  erected 
structures  by  the  side  of  which  the  modern  sky- 
scraper is  insignificant;  that  they  worshipped  in 
temples  far  more  wonderful  than  our  greatest 
cathedrals;  that  they  buried  their  dead  in  tombs 
which  no  modern  millionaire  could  afford  to  build ; 
that  they  produced  an  art  which  the  modern 
world  has  yet  unequalled;  and  of  all  the  wonders 
of  the  earlier  days  of  the  world  those  described 
in  the  following  pages  were  regarded  by  the 
ancients  themselves  as  the  most  wonderful. 

E.  J.  B. 

Alpine,  N.  J. 


Contents 


I. — The  Pyramid  of  Khufu  . 

II. — The  Walls  of  Babylon  . 

III.  — The  Statue  of  the  Olympian  Zeus  . 

IV.  — The  Temple  of  Diana 

V. — The  Tomb  of  King  Mausolus  . 

VI. — The  Colossus  of  Rhodes 

VII. — The  Pharos  of  Alexandria 

Index  


vii 


PAGE 

3 

39 

81 

IOI 

129 

155 

169 

189 


Illustrations 


PAGE 

Reconstruction  of  the  Olympian  Zeus 

Frontispiece 

Portrait  of  King  Khufu  ....  8 

The  Tomb  of  King  Khufu  . . .12 

Plan  of  the  Interior  of  the  Pyramid  . 14 

The  Royal  Chamber 16 

Climbing  the  Pyramid  ....  32 

View  from  the  Summit  of  the  Pyramid  . 34 

Nebuchadnezzar’s  Cameo  ....  44 

Nebuchadnezzar’s  Cylinder  ...  48 

A Nebuchadnezzar  Brick  from  Babylon  . 68 

Plan  of  the  Inner  and  Outer  Walls  of 

Babylon 72 

Cross-Section  of  the  Palace  Fortifications  74 

The  Gateway  to  Nebuchadnezzar’s  Palace  76 


IX 


X 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Reliefs  on  the  Gateway  to  Nebuchad- 
nezzar’s Palace  .....  78 

The  Euphrates  above  Babylon  . . 80 

An  Ancient  Copy  of  the  Athena  Parthenos  84 

From  the  Shield  of  the  Athena  Parthenos  86 

The  Ruins  of  Olympia  ....  96 

Reconstruction  of  the  Temple  of  Diana  108 

A Drum  from  the  Column  of  the  Temple 

of  Diana  . . . . . .110 

The  Magnesian  Gate  . . . .116 

The  Sacred  Way  in  Ephesus  . . .124 

The  Site  of  the  Temple  of  Diana  . .126 

Reconstruction  of  the  Mausoleum  . .136 

From  the  Frieze  of  the  Mausoleum  . 138 

The  Statue  of  Mausolus  . . . .140 

The  Statue  of  Artemisia  (?)  . . 140 

The  Scottish  Rite  Temple  in  Washington  142 

The  Colossus  of  Rhodes  . . . .162 

Ptolemy  Soter 172 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


XI 


A Reconstruction  of  the  Pharos 
Along  the  Heptastadion  . 

The  Modern  Pharos  of  Alexandria 

MAPS 

Plan  of  Babylon 

Map  Showing  the  Location  of  the 
Wonders  .... 


PAGE 

. 176 

. 186 

. 188 

. 70 

Seven 

At  End 


THE  FIRST  WONDER 
The  Pyramid  of  Khufu 


The  Pyramid  of  KHufu 


MODERN  man  is  taught  to  believe  that  he 
has  a soul,  a single  soul,  and  his  ideas 
of  that  one  soul  are  vague  indeed.  The 
ancient  Egyptian  thought  himself  more  richly 
endowed.  He  believed  that  he  had  five  souls, 
and  each  of  those  five  souls  he  professed  to  under- 
stand. There  was  the  ka , the  part  of  him  which 
required  food  and  drink,  not  only  in  life,  but  during 
all  the  long  ages  in  the  tomb.  There  was  the  bai , 
the  soul  which  hovered  about  the  tomb  in  the  form 
of  a bird,  and  which,  on  some  far  distant  day, 
would  return  to  the  body  to  bring  it  back  to  life. 
There  was  the  ran  or  the  name,  the  khibet  or  the 
shadow,  and  the  khat  or  the  corpse.  To  care  for 
these  five  souls  all  his  life  long  gave  the  Egyptian 
trouble  enough;  to  provide  for  them  during  the 
long  sleep  in  the  tomb  was  the  one  great  purpose 
of  his  life.  He  feared  that  his  ka  might  suffer 
hunger  and  thirst,  and  there  be  none  to  bring 
relief,  or  that  some  day  the  bai  might  return  to 

3 


4 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


find  the  body  destroyed,  and  the  homeless  soul 
would  wander  restlessly  about  through  all  of  the 
ages  to  come. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  the  first  duty  of  the 
Egyptian  was  to  provide  for  his  souls.  The  ex- 
ceedingly dry  climate  of  the  Nile  Valley  favoured 
him.  His  body,  if  left  exposed,  withered  away 
until  only  the  skin  and  the  bones  were  left,  and,  if 
not  molested,  it  would  so  remain  indefinitely.  To 
preserve  the  body  in  a more  natural  state  by  arti- 
ficial means  demanded  all  the  skill  of  the  scientists, 
and  gave  employment  to  an  army  of  people. 
Sometimes  the  shrinking  skin  was  stuffed  with 
sawdust  or  with  sand.  Sometimes  the  body  was 
preserved  in  a solution  of  salt,  or,  if  there  were 
wealth  sufficient  to  defray  the  cost,  the  visceral 
parts  were  carefully  removed,  and  preserving  herbs 
and  spices  were  inserted  in  their  place.  So  the 
mummies  were  formed,  and  each  mummy,  with 
food  and  drink  for  the  ka , or  with  wealth  to  obtain 
it,  was  hidden  away  in  a strong  or  secret  place,  to 
await  the  return  of  the  bai. 

In  the  very  early  days,  when  life  was  simple  and 
grave  robbers  few,  the  Egyptian  was  content  with 
a simple  grave.  A hole  was  dug  in  the  sand;  the 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


5 


body  was  placed  within  in  a sitting  position ; a dish 
of  food  and  a pot  of  grain  were  at  its  side;  poles 
and  brush  were  laid  over  the  hole,  and  sand  was 
heaped  above.  Thus  the  first  pyramid,  a little 
pyramid  of  sand,  was  formed.  Some,  desiring  a 
better  tomb  for  their  dead,  lined  the  hole  in  the 
sand  with  boards ; others,  wishing  to  have  access 
to  the  body  that  they  might  bring  it  fresh  supplies 
of  food  and  drink,  built  a passageway  down 
through  the  sand  to  a door  in  the  side  of  the  tomb. 
With  the  years  the  wealth  of  the  people  increased; 
the  tombs  kept  pace,  and  the  pyramids  of  sand 
rose  higher.  Sometimes,  to  hold  the  heap  of  sand 
in  place,  a retaining  wall  of  bricks  was  built  about 
it.  In  time  the  wall  rose  to  cover  the  sand,  and 
then  the  pyramid  was  all  of  bricks ; later  it  was  of 
stone.  Centuries  passed;  life  became  compli- 
cated; the  size  and  the  magnificence  of  the  tombs 
grew  with  the  increasing  wealth;  rare  treasures 
were  buried  with  the  dead,  and  the  grave  robber 
flourished.  Each  king  sought  to  erect  a tomb 
more  magnificent  and  more  secure  than  any  before 
him,  where  his  mummy  and  his  ka , satisfied  with 
an  abundance  of  provisions,  might  await  in  per- 
fect security  the  far  distant  day  when  the  bai 


6 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


should  return.  So  the  rocky  cliffs  bordering  the 
valley,  and  the  valley  too,  abounded  with  myriads 
of  wonderful  tombs. 

Three  dynasties  of  kings  had  ruled  Egypt  and 
passed  away.  The  fourth  came  with  Khufu,  or 
Cheops,  as  some  call  him;  the  Egyptians  spelled 
his  name  Hwfw.  Just  when  Khufu  lived  scholars 
are  uncertain,  for  it  is  difficult  to  determine  with 
accuracy  the  dates  of  early  Egyptian  history. 
Some  say  that  he  ruled  from  3969  to  3908  b.c.,  a 
reign  of  sixty  years ; others  believe  that  he  was  not 
born  till  a thousand  years  later,  or  2900  B.c.,  and 
that  he  was  King  for  but  twenty-three  years. 
However,  we  may  be  sure  that  he  lived  fully  five 
thousand  years  ago.  He  was  born  in  Middle 
Egypt,  in  a town  later  called  “Khufu’s  Nurse.” 
How  or  why  he  became  the  King  of  Egypt,  history 
has  not  told  us.  We  know  little  of  his  reign.  His 
name  appears  in  the  religious  literature  of  a later 
period,  and  he  was  the  hero  of  a popular  Egyptian 
story.  Upon  a sculptured  granite  block  in  the 
temple  at  Bubastis  he  is  represented  as  slaying  his 
enemy,  and  upon  the  rocks  at  the  mines  in  Sinai 
are  two  of  his  inscriptions.  In  the  temple  at  Aby- 
dus,  however,  was  found  a beautiful  small  ivory 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


7 


figure,  a quarter  of  an  inch  in  length,  carved  with 
his  portrait.  It  shows  a thin  face  with  an  expres- 
sion of  unusual  strength.  His  one  great  monument 
is  his  tomb — the  Pyramid  at  Gizeh,  the  first  of  the 
Seven  Wonders  of  the  World. 

Scarcely  had  Khufu  come  to  the  throne  when 
he  began  the  construction  of  his  tomb  which  should 
surpass  all  others  in  size  and  costliness.  It  should 
be  strong  enough  to  defy  the  most  skilful  grave 
robber,  too  lasting  even  for  time  to  destroy. 
For  its  site  he  selected  the  rocky  cliff  to  the  west 
of  the  Nile,  one  hundred  feet  above  the  valley, 
toward  the  setting  of  the  sun,  where  it  was  be- 
lieved that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  entered  the 
underworld.  Preparations  for  its  construction 
were  carefully  made;  no  expense  was  spared.  The 
resources  of  the  country  had  long  been  taxed  to 
support  the  temples  and  an  army  of  priests,  but 
religion  rested  lightly  on  King  Khufu,  and  perhaps 
upon  his  people  too.  Why  should  the  best  fruits 
of  the  land  be  given  to  the  gods  whom  the  King 
knew  to  be  false?  Why  should  tens  of  thousands 
of  strong  men  call  themselves  priests  and  live  in 
luxurious  idleness?  So  one  of  the  first  acts  of 
King  Khufu  was  to  close  the  temples  throughout 


8 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


all  Egypt.  The  offerings  to  the  gods  ceased.  The 
throngs  of  priests  and  temple  attendants  joined 
the  ranks  of  the  workers.  The  herds  of  cattle 
and  the  flocks  of  fowls,  no  longer  offered  daily  to 
delight  the  gods  or  to  feed  the  priests,  were  food 
for  the  workmen.  It  is  said  that  there  were  three 
hundred  thousand  strong  men  in  Egypt,  and  that 
every  man,  as  if  he  were  a slave,  was  forced  to 
labour  for  the  King.  The  workmen  were  divided 
into  three  relays  of  one  hundred  thousand  men 
each,  and  each  relay  was  compelled  to  work  for 
three  months,  while  the  men  of  the  other  two 
relays  supplied  them  with  food  and  attended  to 
their  usual  duties.  Their  only  recompense  was 
their  food  and  clothing,  and  that  was  scanty 
enough.  Taskmasters,  with  whips  in  hand,  stood 
by  to  urge  them  on. 

Thus  were  the  workmen  obtained,  but  even 
with  forced  labour  the  cost  of  the  construction  of 
the  pyramid  was  enormous.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  even  with  modern  machinery  a thousand  men 
would  be  required  to  labour  for  a hundred  years  if 
they  would  duplicate  the  pyramid.  Just  what 
the  cost  to  Khufu  was  we  may  never  know.  Herod- 
otus writes  that  in  his  day  an  inscription  engraved 


Portrait  ot  King  Khufu 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


9 


in  hieroglyphic  characters  on  the  base  of  the 
pyramid  stated  that  for  the  radishes  and  onions 
and  garlic  consumed  by  the  labourers  there  were 
expended  one  thousand  and  six  hundred  talents 
of  silver,  or  about  one  million  dollars.  However, 
long  before  the  pyramid  was  completed,  the  King 
found  his  treasury  empty.  Everywhere  he  sought 
for  more  funds,  but  the  resources  of  the  country 
were  exhausted.  A story  relates  that  “as  a last 
resort  he  sent  his  daughter  to  the  stews  with  orders 
to  procure  him  a certain  sum,”  and  Hentsen,  as 
his  daughter  was  named,  procured  it.  There  is 
another  story  that  Khufu  so  grievously  oppressed 
his  people  that  when  he  died  they  refused  to  bury 
him  in  his  wonderful  tomb;  that  his  hated  name 
was  never  spoken  aloud ; that  even  after  centuries 
had  passed  the  people  called  the  great  tomb  “The 
Pyramid  of  Philetion”  because  a poor  shepherd  of 
that  name  used  to  graze  his  sheep  about  its  base. 

The  material  for  the  construction  of  the  tomb 
was  red  granite  and  limestone.  The  granite, 
which  was  used  only  for  the  lining  of  the  walls  of 
the  inner  chambers,  was  brought  down  the  Nile 
from  Syene  in  Upper  Egypt,  seven  hundred  miles 
away.  The  quarrymen  worked  in  the  ancient 


10 


THE  SEVEN  IVONDERS 


fashion,  splitting  the  stone  with  wooden  wedges, 
and  cutting  them  into  the  desired  shape  with  cop- 
per saws  fed  by  emory  powder.  The  limestone 
for  the  great  mass  of  the  pyramid  was  quarried 
in  the  hills  of  Molcattam,  several  miles  away  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Nile,  and  any  traveller  to 
Egypt  may  visit  the  quarries,  and  see  the  marks 
of  the  adze-like  implements  with  which  the  work- 
men of  Khufu  hewed  out  the  soft  stones.  A vast 
army  of  men  was  employed  in  the  quarries.  An- 
other army,  labouring  upon  the  hill  at  Gizeh,  where 
the  pyramid  was  to  stand,  dug  into  the  rock  to 
the  depth  of  eight  inches  that  the  foundation 
stones  might  remain  securely  in  place,  but  a core 
of  living  rock  was  left  to  project  upward  in  the 
centre.  A long  inclined  passage  was  excavated 
far  down  into  the  solid  rock,  at  the  bottom  of 
which  a chamber  was  hollowed  out.  A third  army 
was  engaged  for  ten  years,  so  Herodotus  said,  in 
building  a causeway  up  which  the  stones  were  to 
be  transported  from  the  river  to  the  Gizeh  hill.  A 
fragment  of  it  still  exists  beneath  the  little  modern 
village  of  Kafr. 

These  laborious  preparations  were  finally  com- 
pleted and  the  real  work  of  construction  began. 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


ii 


At  the  quarries  the  stones  were  loaded  upon  sledges 
and  drawn  on  rollers  by  men  to  the  river.  Barges 
transported  them  to  the  opposite  shore,  and  again 
upon  rollers,  long  lines  of  men,  tugging  at  the 
ropes,  dragged  them  to  the  causeway  and  up  to 
the  place  prepared  for  the  pyramid.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  the  construction  of  some  of  the  Egyp- 
tian pyramids  began  at  the  time  when  the  king 
came  to  the  throne,  and  that  each  year,  as  long 
as  he  lived,  another  enclosing  layer  of  stones  was 
added.  Thus  the  pyramid,  growing  larger  and 
larger,  was  completed  only  with  his  death.  But 
Khufu  prophesied  for  himself  a long  reign.  The 
size  of  his  pyramid  and  the  location  of  the  mys- 
terious chambers  and  passageways  within  were 
determined  from  the  beginning.  The  pyramid 
covered  thirteen  acres  of  ground,  and  was  a perfect 
square,  originally  measuring  756  feet  on  each  side ; 
it  is  a walk  of  more  than  half  a mile  about  its 
base,  and  so  accurate  were  the  measurements  that 
modern  engineers  with  modern  instruments  can 
detect  an  error  of  but  a small  fraction  of  an  inch. 
A wide  pavement  of  limestone  surrounded  the  great 
structure.  The  four  sides  approximately  face  the 
cardinal  points,  the  north,  south,  east,  and  west. 


12 


THE  SEVEN  IVONDERS 


Slowly,  layer  by  layer,  the  great  mass  rose, 
each  layer  slightly  smaller  than  the  one  beneath 
it.  It  is  uncertain  just  how  the  stones  were  raised. 
Some  say  that  sand  was  heaped  up,  forming  an 
inclined  plane  over  which  they  were  dragged,  and 
as  the  pyramid  rose,  the  inclined  plane  was  built 
up  with  it.  Pliny  says  that  the  inclined  plane  was 
of  nitre  and  salt,  and  that  later,  when  the  work 
was  completed,  it  was  melted  away  with  water,  or 
it  was  of  bricks  which  were  torn  away.  Herodotus, 
however,  tells  us  that  the  stones  were  raised  from 
one  stage  to  another  by  machines  consisting  of 
short  planks,  perhaps  on  the  lever  principle,  for 
the  derrick  was  unknown  to  the  ancients. 

Thus  the  pyramid  was  reared  to  the  height  of 
481  feet,  or  150  feet  higher  than  St.  Paul’s  Cathe- 
dral, or  nearly  twice  as  high  as  the  Flatiron  Building 
in  New  York  City.  Its  sides  sloped  at  an  angle 
of  about  fifty-one  degrees  and  fifty  minutes.  Two 
hundred  and  three  of  the  courses  of  the  masonry 
still  remain,  but  according  to  Pliny  the  pyramid 
never  came  quite  to  a point,  for  on  the  summit  was 
a platform  sixteen  and  one  half  feet  in  circuit. 
What,  if  anything,  stood  upon  the  platform,  he 
does  not  tell  us.  The  present  platform  is  thirty- 


The  Tomb  of  King  Khufu 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


13 


two  feet  and  eight  inches  square,  large  enough  for 
a hundred  people  to  stand  there  comfortably.  It 
is  estimated  that  in  the  entire  pyramid  are  2,300,- 
000  blocks  of  stone,  averaging  in  weight  two  and 
a half  tons;  the  average  size  is  four  feet  and  ten 
inches  in  length  and  two  feet  and  two  inches  in 
height;  the  largest  stone  visible  from  the  exterior 
is  nine  feet  long  and  six  and  one  half  feet  in  height. 
As  we  might  expect,  the  stones  of  the  lower  courses 
are  larger  than  those  higher  up.  The  mortar 
used  in  cementing  them  was  scarcely  thicker  than 
a piece  of  paper,  for  the  joints  were  fitted  together 
so  perfectly  that  it  is  impossible  to  thrust  the 
thinnest  knife  blade  into  them.  The  entire 
pyramid  was  once  encased  with  stone  polished 
like  glass,  and  to  one  standing  but  a short  distance 
away  it  must  have  resembled  a single  huge  stone 
shining  and  reflecting  the  sunlight  with  dazzling 
brilliancy.  Possibly  upon  one  of  the  sides  was  a 
stairway  leading  to  the  summit,  for  otherwise  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  ascend  to  the  plat- 
form. Whether  or  not  the  casing  stones  bore 
hieroglyphic  characters,  we  may  never  know,  yet 
Herodotus  speaks  of  one  inscription  at  the  base, 
and  Arab  writers  speak  of  others.  It  used  to  be 


14 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


said  that  if  the  casing  stone  were  struck  a hard 
blow,  it  emitted  a peculiar  odour,  and  for  that 
reason  the  name  of  “stink  stone,”  or  “swine 
stone,”  was  given  to  it. 

All  the  ingenuity  of  the  Egyptian  architect  was 
employed  to  conceal  the  chambers  within  the 
pyramid.  The  entrance  at  the  centre  of  the  north 
side  was  carefully  concealed  by  the  casing  stone, 
and  only  when  the  stone  was  torn  away  was  it 
revealed.  Imagine  that  you  were  an  ancient 
Egyptian  and  would  explore  the  interior  of  the 
pyramid.  You  climb  to  the  eighteenth  course 
of  stones,  or  forty-seven  feet  from  the  base,  to  a 
small  opening  three  and  a half  feet  square,  leading 
within.  With  a guide  and  a torch  you  enter. 
You  must  bend  low,  for  the  passage  is  but  five  feet 
high,  and  step  carefully,  for  it  slopes  downward  at 
an  angle  of  over  twenty-six  degrees.  It  is  a long 
descent,  seemingly  interminable,  down  to  the  level 
of  the  foundation,  and  then  down  the  shaft  through 
the  living  rock  317  feet  from  the  entrance.  At 
last,  beneath  the  very  centre  of  the  pyramid,  you 
enter  a large  chamber,  but  even  by  the  dim  light 
of  your  torch  you  may  see  that  the  chamber  was 
never  completed.  King  Khufu  was  not  buried 


of  the  Interior  of  the  Pyramid 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


i5 


there.  The  chamber  was  only  a part  of  the  plan 
of  the  wily  old  King  to  deceive  the  future  grave 
robbers.  When  the  robbers  would  enter  the  tomb 
and  find  it  empty,  they  would  imagine  that  other 
robbers  had  been  there  before  them  and  abandon 
the  search,  while  the  mummy  of  the  King  would 
continue  to  rest  securely  in  a chamber  high  above. 

You  climb  back  up  the  passage  to  the  level  of 
the  foundation,  where  the  guide  will  take  you  to 
the  entrance  of  another  passage  which  was  once 
carefully  concealed.  Still  bending  low,  you  follow 
him  up  through  twenty-five  courses  of  stones, 
and  then  along  the  level  to  the  centre  of  the  pyra- 
mid. There  you  reach  the  queen’s  chamber, 
measuring  sixteen  by  eighteen  and  a half  feet, 
and  fourteen  feet  in  height.  But  the  queen  was 
not  buried  there,  for  this  chamber,  too,  was  con- 
structed to  lead  the  grave  robbers  astray. 

You  follow  your  guide  from  the  queen’s  cham- 
ber along  the  level  passage  to  the  point  where  the 
incline  begins,  and  opening  before  you  is  a great 
gallery  leading  still  farther  upward.  You  enter, 
and  here  you  may  stand  erect,  for  the  gallery  is 
twenty-eight  feet  high.  Up  you  climb  to  the 
height  of  138  feet  above  the  foundation,  or  to  the 


1 6 THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


fiftieth  course  of  stones,  to  a small  antechamber, 
and  through  it  to  the  royal  chamber.  Here,  as 
in  a great  cavern,  the  light  of  your  torch  has  little 
effect  upon  the  darkness,  for  the  chamber  is  thirty- 
four  feet  long,  seventeen  feet  wide,  and  nineteen 
feet  high.  The  walls  are  of  polished  granite,  and, 
if  you  would  climb  above  the  ceiling,  you  would 
find  several  smaller  chambers  constructed  to  resist 
the  pressure  of  the  great  weight  of  the  stones  above. 
The  roofing  slabs,  weighing  about  fifty-four  tons 
each,  are  the  largest  stones  in  the  pyramid.  From 
the  ceiling  small  holes  lead  upward  for  ventilation. 
It  is  only  with  a flashlight  that  the  chamber  is 
sufficiently  illuminated  that  you  may  appreciate 
it.  Then  you  admire  the  polished  walls.  In  a 
corner  you  see  a stone  sarcophagus  which  must 
have  been  built  into  the  pyramid,  for  it  is  too 
large  to  have  been  carried  through  the  passage- 
ways. Perhaps  in  it  the  King  was  buried,  but 
we  do  not  know.  Its  lid  is  gone,  and  it  is  empty. 
Perhaps  some  grave  robber  plundered  it  and  car- 
ried the  royal  mummy  away.  Perhaps  it  is  true 
that  when  King  Khufu  died,  his  people  refused  to 
bury  him  in  the  great  tomb  which  impoverished 
them  to  build.  Perhaps,  as  someone  has  suggested, 


Tile  Royal  Chamber 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


1 7 


there  is  still  somewhere  another  secret  chamber 
which  neither  the  early  robber  nor  the  modern 
explorer  has  been  able  to  discover,  where  the 
mummy  of  Khufu  is  still  reposing  in  peace,  waiting 
for  the  return  of  his  soul. 

We  know  nothing  of  the  details  of  the  death  and 
burial  of  King  Khufu.  Probably,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  time,  his  body  was  mummified,  and 
after  the  final  ceremonies  had  been  performed,  it 
was  transported  across  the  river  in  the  funeral  boat 
to  the  pyramid  and  carried  through  the  long  pas- 
sage to  the  king’s  chamber  to  be  placed  in  the 
sarcophagus  together  with  vast  treasures.  The 
entrance  to  the  chamber  was  blocked  with  large 
granite  stones  to  defy  the  grave  robbers.  In  the 
temple  near  the  northern  base  of  the  pyramid, 
the  ruins  of  which  may  still  be  seen,  priests  were 
stationed  to  attend  to  the  dead  man’s  needs,  and 
an  army  of  soldiers  was  quartered  there  to  guard 
his  tomb. 

Several  ancient  descriptions  of  the  pyramid  have 
survived,  yet  the  oldest  of  them  was  written  after 
it  had  been  standing  more  than  three  thousand 
years.  The  Egyptians  themselves  have  told  us 
almost  nothing  of  it;  perhaps  the  memory  of  the 


i8 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


oppressive  King  was  too  odious  to  inspire  them  to 
write.  Herodotus  has  given  us  the  oldest  detailed 
description.  Among  other  things  he  says: 


Cheops  succeeded  [Rhampsinitus]  to  the  throne, 
and  plunged  into  all  manner  of  wickedness.  He 
closed  the  temples,  and  forbade  the  Egyptians  to 
offer  sacrifices,  compelling  them  instead  to  labour, 
one  and  all,  in  his  service.  Some  were  required  to 
drag  blocks  of  stone  down  to  the  Nile  from  the  quarries 
in  the  Arabian  range  of  hills;  others  received  the 
blocks  after  they  had  been  conveyed  in  boats  across 
the  river,  and  drew  them  to  the  range  of  hills  called 
the  Libyan.  A hundred  thousand  men  laboured 
constantly,  and  were  relieved  every  three  months  by 
a fresh  lot.  It  took  ten  years’  oppression  of  the  people 
to  make  the  causeway  for  the  conveyance  of  the  stones, 
a work  not  much  inferior,  in  my  judgment,  to  the 
pyramid  itself.  This  causeway  is  five  furlongs  in 
length,  ten  fathoms  wide,  and  in  height,  at  the  highest 
part,  eight  fathoms.  It  is  built  of  polished  stone,  and 
is  covered  with  carvings  of  animals.  To  make  it  took 
ten  years,  as  I said — or  rather  to  make  the  causeway, 
the  works  on  the  mound  where  the  pyramid  stands, 
and  the  underground  chambers,  which  Cheops  in- 
tended as  vaults  for  his  own  use:  these  last  were  built 
on  a sort  of  island  surrounded  by  water  introduced 
from  the  Nile  by  a canal.  The  pyramid  itself  was 
twenty  years  in  building.  It  is  a square,  eight  hun- 
dred feet  each  way,  and  the  height  the  same,  built 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


19 


entirely  of  polished  stone,  fitted  together  with  the 
■utmost  care.  The  stones  of  which  it  is  composed 
are  none  of  them  less  than  thirty  feet  in  length. 

The  pyramid  was  built  in  steps,  battlement- wise, 
as  it  is  called,  or,  according  to  others,  altar-wise. 
After  laying  the  stones  for  the  base,  they  raised  the 
remaining  stones  to  their  places  by  means  of  machines 
formed  of  short  wooden  planks.  The  first  machine 
raised  them  from  the  ground  to  the  top  of  the  first 
step.  On  this  there  was  another  machine,  which 
received  the  stone  upon  its  arrival,  and  conveyed  it 
to  the  second  step,  whence  a third  machine  advanced 
it  still  higher.  Either  they  had  as  many  machines 
as  there  were  steps  in  the  pyramid,  or  possibly  they 
had  but  a single  machine,  which,  being  easily  moved, 
was  transferred  from  tier  to  tier  as  the  stone  rose— 
both  accounts  are  given,  and  therefore  I mention 
both.  The  upper  portion  of  the  pyramid  was  finished 
first,  then  the  middle,  and  finally  the  part  which  was 
lowest  and  nearest  to  the  ground.  There  is  an  in- 
scription in  Egyptian  characters  on  the  pyramid, 
which  records  the  quantity  of  radishes,  onions,  and 
garlic  consumed  by  the  labourers  who  constructed  it; 
and  I perfectly  well  remember  that  the  interpreter 
who  read  the  writing  to  me  said  that  the  money  ex- 
pended in  this  way  was  sixteen  hundred  talents  of 
silver.  If  this  then  is  a true  record,  what  a vast  sum 
must  have  been  spent  on  the  iron  tools  used  in  the 
work,  and  on  the  feeding  and  clothing  of  the  labour- 
ers, considering  the  length  of  time  the  work  lasted, 
which  has  already  been  stated,  and  the  additional 


20 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


time — no  small  space,  I imagine — which  must  have 
been  occupied  by  the  quarrying  of  the  stones,  their 
conveyance,  and  the  formation  of  the  underground 
apartments. 

This  description  by  Herodotus,  as  modern  ex- 
plorers have  shown,  is  not  always  accurate.  No 
canal  connected  the  Nile  with  the  pyramid;  his 
dimensions  are  exaggerated,  and  no  such  stones 
of  the  size  he  mentions  were  used,  unless  in  the 
outer  casing,  which  has  been  torn  away,  and 
Herodotus  saw  none  but  the  casing  stones.  Pliny, 
the  Roman  writer  of  a later  age,  merely  repeats 
some  of  the  statements  of  Herodotus. 

When  Khufu  died,  Kaphra,  his  son,  succeeded 
him  to  the  throne.  Following  the  example  of 
his  father,  he  built  the  somewhat  smaller  pyramid 
at  the  side  of  Khufu’s  tomb,  and  the  rocky  pro- 
jection at  the  base  of  the  great  pyramid  was  shaped 
into  a mighty  sphynx  whose  head  was  a portrait 
of  Kaphra.  The  next  King,  Menkaura,  built 
another  pyramid  still  smaller,  and  there  the  three 
massive  piles  have  stood  to  astonish  the  travellers 
of  every  age. 

Centuries,  even  millenniums  passed.  The  little 
group  of  pyramids  stood,  even  defying  time,  but 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


21 


not  the  grave  robber.  With  the  mummy  of  every 
king  and  noble,  treasures  of  great  value  were  buried, 
and  to  find  the  buried  treasures  in  the  tombs  the 
profession  of  grave  robbing  arose  and  flourished. 
Sometime,  we  do  not  know  just  when,  the  grave 
robber  attacked  the  tomb  of  Khufu.  Just  how 
he  entered  it  we  do  not  know ; probably  he  discov- 
ered the  entrance  carefully  concealed  beneath 
the  casing  stone.  It  seems  that  he  merely  de- 
scended the  long  shaft  to  the  chamber  far  beneath 
the  foundation,  and  finding  it  empty,  he  concluded 
that  others  had  been  there  before  him,  and  aban- 
doned the  search.  It  seems  that  the  entrance  to 
the  pyramid  was  known  in  Roman  times,  for  the 
early  modern  explorers  found  Latin  words  marked 
upon  the  walls  of  the  subterranean  chamber. 

Other  centuries  or  millenniums  passed.  The 
long  history  of  Egypt  came  to  an  end.  Greece 
and  Rome  rose  and  fell,  yet  the  great  pyramid 
stood  as  perfect  as  it  was  on  the  day  it  was  com- 
pleted, still  guarding  the  royal  mummy  and  the 
treasures  in  its  secret  chambers.  In  Mecca  Mo- 
hammed was  born,  and  the  armies  of  the  Arabs 
spread  over  the  East.  In  639  the  Arabian  general 
Amr  conquered  Egypt.  Three  years  later,  in 


22 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


642,  the  city  of  Cairo  was  built,  and  the  new  home 
of  the  Arab  caliphs  grew  in  a wonderful  manner. 
Building  material  was  required  for  its  mosques 
and  palaces,  and  the  great  pyramid,  plainly  visible 
from  the  city,  was  a quarry  with  an  abundance  of 
stones  already  cut  and  polished.  So  the  Arabs 
wrenched  some  of  the  casing  stones  of  Khufu’s 
tomb  away;  they  stripped  it  of  its  polished  beauty, 
revealing  its  rough  step-like  courses  of  stones  just 
beneath  its  surface. 

In  the  year  813,  Mamun,  the  illustrious  son  of 
the  more  illustrious  Haroun-er-Rashid  of  Bagdad, 
became  the  caliph  of  the  Arabian  world,  and  in 
820  he  came  to  Egypt  where  he  spent  much  of  the 
latter  part  of  his  reign.  The  pyramid  excited  the 
imagination  of  this  scholarly  Arab,  and  he  listened 
attentively  to  the  fantastic  tales  which  the  imagi- 
native Arabs  poured  into  his  ears.  “The  Glori- 
ous,” or  “The  Mountain  of  Pharaoh,”  as  they 
called  the  pyramid,  was  built  by  King  Ad,  or  King 
Saurad,  they  said,  as  a storehouse  for  his  many 
treasures.  Hidden  within  its  chambers  were  pre- 
cious stones,  weapons  that  would  not  rust,  glass 
that  would  bend  and  not  break,  magical  stones, 
and  books  written  by  the  magicians  of  old.  To 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


23 


guard  the  treasures  was  a nude  marble  figure 
standing  with  lance  in  hand,  and  wreathed  about 
his  head  were  serpents  to  destroy  all  who  ap- 
proached. Mamun  had  little  faith  in  the  stories, 
yet  he  wished  to  learn  the  secrets  of  the  interior 
of  the  pyramid.  It  seems  that  the  entrance  had 
been  forgotten.  Upon  the  northern  side,  twenty- 
four  feet  from  the  centre,  and  low  down,  he  placed 
his  workmen  to  dig  through  the  stone.  For  a 
hundred  feet  they  made  their  way  until  it  seemed 
that  the  pyramid  was  of  solid  masonry,  and  just 
as  they  were  about  to  abandon  their  work  as  hope- 
less, they  heard  a great  stone  fall  in  a chamber 
within.  With  renewed  energy  they  dug  in  the 
direction  of  the  noise  they  had  heard,  hurriedly 
breaking  away  the  stones  with  fire  and  vinegar. 
Finally  they  came  to  the  point  where  the  passage- 
way turns  upward  to  the  queen’s  chamber.  Their 
blasting  and  digging  had  caused  the  fall  of  a stone 
which  had  been  set  as  a trap  to  block  the  approach 
to  the  upper  chambers.  Thus  the  passageway, 
so  securely  hidden  that  the  early  grave  robbers 
could  not  find  it,  was  discovered.  Granite  stones, 
too  hard  for  them  to  break  or  to  cut,  stopped  the 
progress  of  the  Arabs,  so  they  worked  their  way 


24 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


through  the  softer  stones  about  them,  until  at  last 
they  stood  in  the  royal  chamber  before  the  sar- 
cophagus of  King  Khufu. 

Conflicting  are  the  accounts  of  the  discoveries 
of  Mamun’s  workmen  in  the  royal  chamber.  Some 
say  that  they  found  only  the  empty  sarcophagus 
without  its  lid,  and  that  when  they  complained  to 
Mamun  that  all  their  labour  had  been  in  vain,  he 
secretly  buried  some  gold  for  them  to  discover. 
Thus  he  rewarded  them  for  their  labour.  Others 
say  that  when  Mamun  entered  the  royal  chamber, 
“he  saw  there  a hollow  stone  in  which  lay  the 
statue  of  a man,  but  the  statue  enclosed  a body 
whose  breastplate  of  gold  was  brilliantly  set  with 
jewels.  A sword  of  inestimable  value  lay  upon 
the  corpse.  At  the  head,  with  the  light  of  day, 
shone  a carbuncle  as  large  as  an  egg.”  How  much 
of  this  story  is  the  invention  of  the  Arabs,  we  may 
never  know,  yet  one  author  asserts  that  in  the 
year  1133  he  saw  standing  in  a palace  doorway  in 
Cairo  the  mummy-case  which  Mamun  had  taken 
from  the  sarcophagus  in  the  royal  chamber  of  the 
pyramid. 

It  seems  that  since  the  days  of  Mamun  the 
entrance  to  the  pyramid  has  remained  open  to  all 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


25 


who  would  explore  the  dark  passages  within,  for 
the  Arabs  have  little  respect  for  the  tombs  of 
strangers.  Later  builders,  among  them  the  great 
Saladin,  plundered  the  pyramid  of  others  of  its 
casing  stones;  probably  the  mosque  of  Sultan 
Hassan  in  Cairo  is  largely  built  of  them.  In  1301 
an  earthquake  cast  down  all  of  the  remaining 
casing  stones  excepting  the  few  which  are  still 
beneath  the  sand  at  the  base.  In  1835  Moham- 
med Ali  proposed  to  tear  down  the  entire  pyramid 
for  its  stone,  but  fortunately  he  discovered  that 
it  was  cheaper  to  obtain  his  building  material  in 
a quarry  near  Cairo.  So  the  pyramid,  stripped  of 
its  covering,  still  stands.  Had  it  escaped  the 
hands  of  the  destructive  Arabs,  it  would  now  be 
as  perfect  as  when  it  was  completed  by  the  work- 
men of  King  Khufu  five  thousand  or  more  years 
ago,  and  if  it  escapes  destruction  by  future  van- 
dals, it  will  continue  to  stand  perhaps  to  the  end 
of  the  world. 

The  pyramids,  unlike  many  great  structures  of 
antiquity,  have  never  been  buried;  only  their 
history  has  been  forgotten.  Most  ancient  build- 
ings have  collapsed  and  buried  themselves  amid 
their  own  ruins,  or  the  drifting  sands  have  been 


26 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


heaped  above  them,  or  floods  have  covered  them 
with  silt.  The  Gizeh  pyramids,  standing  conspic- 
uously on  their  high  foundations,  have  attracted 
the  attention  of  travellers  of  all  ages,  yet  it  would 
be  difficult  to  say  just  when  the  first  scientific 
efforts  were  made  to  explain  their  origin  and  pur- 
pose. It  seems  that  it  was  in  1637  when  Professor 
Greaves  of  Oxford  first  began  their  scientific  ex- 
ploration. By  1692  their  interior  had  been  in- 
vestigated, and  Maillet  described  the  sarcophagus 
in  the  king’s  chamber  as  “A  narrow  space,  yet 
large  enough  to  conteine  a most  potent  and  dread- 
ful monarch,  being  dead,  to  whom,  living,  all 
Egypt  was  straight  and  narrow  in  circuit.”  In 
1763  Davison  discovered  the  first  open  space 
above  the  king’s  chamber;  the  others  were  found 
by  Colonel  Vyse  in  1837.  However,  Professor 
Piazzi  Smyth  of  Edinburgh  continued  the  investi- 
gations on  a most  extensive  scale.  Since  then  a 
score  or  more  of  Egyptologists  have  added  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  pyramid  until  apparently  there 
remain  few  of  its  secrets  which  have  not  been 
revealed. 

It  is  not  the  size  of  the  pyramid  alone  at  which 
men  of  all  ages  have  marvelled.  Inspired  by  its 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


27 


vastness  and  great  age,  they  have  associated  with 
it  ideas,  some  scholarly,  others  as  fantastic  as  any 
of  the  tales  related  by  the  Arabs.  To  enumerate 
a few  of  these  theories  as  to  how  and  why  the 
pyramid  was  built  would  be  amusing;  to  speak  of 
them  all  would  be  tedious. 

As  the  Egyptians  were  renowned  for  their 
knowledge  of  astronomy  it  has  been  argued,  by 
some  modern  writers,  that  the  pyramid  was  an 
observatory  for  watching  the  movements  of  the 
stars,  and  that  the  long  passage  leading  from  the 
exterior  to  the  chamber  in  the  rock  far  beneath 
the  foundation  was  a telescope  through  which  the 
stars  were  visible  at  noonday.  This  great  observa- 
tory, so  it  was  said,  stands  in  the  very  centre  of  the 
earth ; its  height  is  one  billionth  part  of  the  distance 
of  the  sun  from  the  earth ; it  indicates  the  number 
of  days  in  the  year;  it  explains  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion ; it  is  a standard  of  weights  and  measures. 

However,  in  the  Orient,  where  the  summers  are 
long  and  the  nights  are  hot  and  everybody  sleeps 
on  the  roof  or  in  the  open  beneath  the  sky,  there  is 
a familiarity  with  the  stars  not  general  in  the 
Western  world.  Unless  it  was  among  the  Chinese, 
the  earliest  great  astronomers  were  the  Babylo- 


28 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


nians,  who  in  very  early  times  tabulated  the  fixed 
stars,  gave  them  names,  and  foretold  eclipses. 
They  determined  the  length  of  the  year  and  divided 
it  into  months.  Intercourse  between  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Egyptians  was  frequent  even  before 
the  pyramids  were  built,  and  it  now  seems  that 
the  Egyptians  learned  their  first  lessons  in  astron- 
omy from  the  Babylonians.  Undoubtedly  when 
King  Khufu  planned  the  building  of  the  pyramid 
he  consulted  the  astrologers,  for  in  his  day  the 
distinction  between  the  astrologer  and  the  astron- 
omer was  not  sharply  drawn,  and  no  great  project 
was  undertaken  without  first  reading  the  stars. 
Perhaps  Khufu’ s astrologers  were  expert  Babylo- 
nians, as  some  have  suggested,  but  of  that  we  may 
never  be  sure.  The  pyramid  was  constructed 
near  the  thirtieth  degree  of  north  latitude. 
Therefore  the  writers  of  the  past  century  argued 
that  the  Egyptians  knew  the  earth  is  round  and 
that  the  pyramid  was  erected  on  that  degree  with 
design,  but  to  be  exact  the  pyramid  stands  a mile 
and  a third  to  the  south  of  that  degree.  Cer- 
tainly its  location  near  the  thirtieth  degree  was 
merely  a coincidence;  certainly  the  King  selected 
the  site  which  best  suited  his  fancy,  as  did  the 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


29 


builders  of  the  score  or  more  of  other  pyramids 
which  were  constructed  in  Egypt.  That  the  sides 
of  the  pyramid  faced  the  cardinal  points  was  cer- 
tainly not  a coincidence,  for  all  the  other  pyramids 
were  oriented  in  a similar  manner.  The  Babylo- 
nian temple  towers,  so  suggestive  of  the  pyramids, 
especially  of  the  mastaba  type,  were  built  with 
their  corners,  not  their  sides,  toward  the  cardinal 
points.  However,  the  sides  of  Khufu’s  pyramid 
did  not  exactly  face  the  north,  east,  south  and 
west,  for  in  every  five  yards  there  is  an  error  of 
one  inch,  but  that  slight  error  was  undoubtedly 
accidental.  Nor  is  it  an  accident  that  the  long 
passageway,  inclining  at  an  angle  of  twenty-six 
degrees  and  seventeen  minutes,  pointed  directly 
to  the  North  Star,  which  was  then  Thuban,  or 
Alpha  Draconis , the  brightest  star  in  the  constel- 
lation of  the  Dragon,  but  which  now  is  of  a lesser 
magnitude.  Undoubtedly  the  worship  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  which  permeated  the  religion  of 
the  ancients,  was  a prominent  factor  in  determin- 
ing the  orientation  and  construction  of  the  great 
pyramid,  but  more  than  that  no  man  can  say. 

If  Aristotle  was  right  in  saying  that  the  pyramid 
was  built  merely  to  find  employment  for  the  idle 


30 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


rich,  or,  as  Pliny  says,  to  keep  the  captives  busy, 
there  were  few  idle  hands  during  the  long  reign 
of  King  Khufu.  Another  theorist  adds  that  it 
was  built  to  please  the  ladies  of  old,  who  requested 
the  sons  of  God  to  employ  their  leisure  thus  rather 
than  in  paying  them  court. 

Modern  religious  writers  have  seen  in  the  pyra- 
mid things  even  more  marvellous.  To  them  it 
shows  the  unity  of  God  and  the  origin  of  the  Sab- 
bath; it  is  a prophecy  of  the  coming  of  Jesus,  of 
His  crucifixion,  and  the  passageways  symbolize 
the  spear  thrust  in  His  side.  It  is  a memorial 
of  the  deluge  of  Noah,  and  one  writer,  asserting 
that  the  great  pyramid  soon  followed  the  Tower 
of  Babel,  and  had  the  same  common  origin,  asks: 
“Was  it  not  a copy  of  the  original  Tower  of  Babel? 
Were  not  the  dimensions  of  that  structure  taken 
from  the  ark  of  Noah?”  Others,  however,  do 
not  believe  that  the  pyramid  can  serve  any  good 
purpose,  for  its  “dark  caves  and  mummy  deposi- 
tories are  Satan's  abodes.” 

The  Zoroastrians  see  in  its  shape  a tongue  of 
flame,  an  emblem  of  the  sun  and  of  the  sacred  fire. 
According  to  the  Moslems  it  was  three  hundred 
years  before  the  flood  when  King  Saurad  dreamed 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


3i 


that  the  stars  fell  and  the  earth  collapsed.  Again 
a year  later  he  dreamed  that  as  the  stars  fell  they 
were  transformed  to  white  birds  which  carried 
men  away.  The  soothsayers  interpreted  the  ter- 
rifying omen.  The  dream  foretold  the  coming  of 
the  deluge.  The  King  therefore  commanded  the 
pyramids  to  be  built  to  preserve  the  public  treas- 
ures, the  bodies  of  the  kings,  the  aromatic  herbs, 
and  the  wisdom  of  the  world  which  would  other- 
wise be  lost.  Along  with  these  theories  should  be 
included  the  statement  of  the  renowned  Sir  John 
Mandeville,  who  travelled  on  long  imaginary 
journeys  and  recorded  the  imaginary  things  he 
saw. 

And  now  also  I shall  speak  of  another  thing  that 
is  beyond  Babylon,  above  the  flood  of  the  Nile,  toward 
the  desert  between  Africa  and  Egypt;  that  is  to  say 
of  the  garners  of  Joseph,  that  he  let  make  for  to  keep 
the  grains  for  the  peril  of  the  dear  years.  And  they 
be  made  of  stone,  full  well  made  of  mason’s  craft; 
of  the  which  two  be  marvellously  great  and  high,  and 
the  tother  ne  be  not  so  great.  And  every  gamer  hath 
a gate  for  to  enter  within,  a little  high  from  the  earth; 
for  the  land  is  wasted  and  fallen  since  the  garners 
were  made.  And  within  they  be  all  full  of  serpents. 
And  above  the  garners  without  be  many  scriptures 
of  diverse  languages.  And  some  men  say,  that  they 


32 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


be  sepultures  of  great  lords,  that  were  sometime,  but 
that  is  not  true,  for  all  the  common  rumour  and  speech 
is  of  all  the  people  there,  both  far  and  near,  that  they 
be  the  garners  of  Joseph,  and  so  they  find  in  their 
scriptures,  and  in  their  chronicles.  On  the  other 
part,  if  they  were  sepultures,  they  should  not  be  void 
within,  ne  they  should  have  no  gates  for  to  enter 
within,  for  ye  may  well  know,  that  tombs  and  sepul- 
tures be  not  made  of  such  greatness  nor  of  such  high- 
ness ; wherefore  it  is  not  to  believe  that  they  be  tombs 
or  sepultures. 

But  the  words  even  of  the  great  Mandeville  fail 
to  convince  us,  and  so  again  we  refer  to  the  Father 
of  History,  to  the  truthful  Herodotus,  who  in  one 
brief  sentence  has  told  us  more  than  have  hosts 
of  later  writers,  all  that  modern  research  has  re- 
vealed of  the  purpose  of  the  great  pyramid:  “It 
was  the  tomb  of  a king.” 

No  journey  to  Egypt  is  complete  unless  it  in- 
cludes a visit  to  the  pyramid  and  the  ascent  to  its 
summit.  From  Cairo  you  cross  the  bridge  to  the 
western  side  of  the  Nile,  where  a modern  trolley 
car  is  waiting  to  take  you  to  Gizeh.  In  the  dis- 
tance to  the  south  your  eye  quickly  detects  the 
great  pyramid  outlined  against  the  blue  of  the 
Egyptian  sky.  Higher  and  higher  it  seems  to  rear 


Copyright  by  Underwood  & Underwood 

Climbing  the  Pyramid 


mmf 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


33 


its  summit  as  you  approach.  You  wade  through 
the  deep  sand  about  it,  and  close  to  its  base  you 
stand  looking  up  its  steep  high  side,  doubting  if 
your  courage  and  your  strength  are  equal  to  the 
climb.  An  aged,  white-gowned  Arab,  the  guardian 
of  the  tomb,  reads  your  thoughts  and  in  broken 
English  asks  if  you  wish  guides  for  the  ascent. 
Three  Arabs,  strong,  nimble  fellows,  are  assigned 
to  you.  Two  of  them  seize  you  by  the  hands;  a 
third  pushes  you  from  behind,  and  you  need  them 
all,  for  some  of  the  steps  are  quite  four  feet  high. 
Soon  you  stop  to  rest.  Dizziness  seizes  you  as  you 
look  down  the  steep  side,  and  hugging  close  to  the 
stone  lest  you  fall,  you  turn  your  eyes  upward. 
The  great  stone  steps,  one  above  another,  seem  to 
continue  in  endless  succession.  Again  your  guides 
pull  and  push  you  on.  The  rest  periods  become 
more  frequent.  Weary,  and  with  knees  trembling, 
you  try  to  count  the  courses  above  you,  but  they 
too  are  finally  surmounted,  and  you  step  upon  the 
summit.  Then  your  weariness  is  forgotten  as 
you  stand  enraptured  at  the  panorama  of  Lower 
Egypt  at  your  feet. 

Just  beneath  you  the  sphynx  raises  its  weather- 
worn head  from  the  sand.  The  other  pyramids, 


34 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


mighty  structures  when  seen  from  below,  have 
lost  their  majesty.  The  houses  in  the  little  vil- 
lage by  the  edge  of  the  cliff  are  tiny  boxes.  Down 
in  the  valley  the  great  broad  Nile  is  a narrow 
winding  silver  band;  the  clumps  of  date-palms 
along  its  borders  are  patches  of  green.  Here  and 
there  are  checkered  fields  of  yellow  and  black  and 
brown,  in  which  the  toiling  fellahin  are  of  a pigmy 
race.  Beyond  is  Cairo,  a miniature  city,  whose 
domes  and  minarets  are  vainly  struggling  upward. 
To  the  east,  across  the  valley,  the  Mokattam  hills 
have  lost  their  height;  the  desert  to  the  west 
stretches  endlessly  away  until  it  is  lost  on  the 
distant  horizon. 

There  you  stand  as  on  a mountain  peak, 
looking,  dreaming,  conjuring  up  visions  of  the 
long-forgotten  past.  Finally  you  reluctantly  per- 
mit your  guides  to  lead  you  below.  Near  the 
base,  before  the  small  opening  of  the  passageway, 
you  stop  to  gaze  into  the  darkness  within.  The 
guides  bid  you  bend  low  as  they  lead  the  way  with 
lighted  torches.  How  long  and  steep  and  dark 
and  cool  the  passage  seems.  You  see  the  intense 
darkness  in  the  queen’s  chamber.  You  climb  up 
through  the  great  gallery  to  the  king’s  chamber. 


A View  from  the  Summit  of  the  Pyramid 


THE  PYRAMID  OF  KHUFU 


35 


You  gaze  into  the  old  empty  sarcophagus,  now 
marred  and  broken  by  the  hands  of  modern  tour- 
ist vandals.  You  feel  the  polished  walls  now  de- 
secrated with  those  vandals’  names.  And  again 
at  the  entrance  you  stand  blinking  in  the  bright 
Egyptian  sunlight. 

At  the  base  once  more  you  look  upward;  now, 
better  than  before,  you  realize  that  towering  like 
a mountain  above  you  is  the  largest,  the  loftiest, 
the  most  enduring,  one  of  the  oldest  tombs  of  man, 
and  then  you  really  understand  why  the  ancients 
called  that  old  old  tomb  the  first  of  the  Seven 
Wonders  of  the  World. 


THE  SECOND  WONDER 
THe  Walls  of  Babylon 


37 


The  Walls  of  Babylon 


IN  the  old  city  of  Damascus  you  climb  to  the 
hump  of  a tall  fleet  dromedary.  With  guides 
and  guards  about  you,  you  ride  through  the 
covered  bazaars  crowded  with  dark-faced  Arabs 
in  strange  costumes,  and  along  the  narrow  winding 
lane  which  was  once  the  “Street  Called  Straight.” 
Leaving  the  city  by  the  eastern  gate,  and  passing 
a small  village  or  two,  you  ascend  the  hill  to  the 
plateau,  and  before  you,  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,  stretches  the  great  Arabian  Desert.  With 
mingling  fear  and  wonder  at  the  mystery  always 
lying  beyond  the  desert  horizon,  you  tap  gently 
with  your  heel  upon  the  shoulder  of  the  dromedary 
to  urge  her  on.  At  first,  paying  little  heed  to  you, 
she  hesitates  and  glances  anxiously  about  the 
desert  as  if  in  search  of  an  enemy.  Now  and  then 
she  reaches  down  to  graze  the  thorny  argool  along 
the  way.  As  the  taps  upon  her  shoulder  are  re- 
peated, she  stretches  out  her  long  neck,  and  with 
long  strides  makes  for  the  eastern  horizon;  she 


40 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


realizes  that  she  is  bound  on  the  long  journey 
across  the  desert.  Hour  after  hour  she  bears  you 
over  the  hard  monotonous  plain.  The  Damascus 
mosques  and  their  minarets  sink  beneath  the 
western  sky.  The  desert  about  you  shows  no 
signs  of  life ; only  a tall  column  of  whirling  sand, 
rearing  its  head  until  it  is  lost  in  the  blue  above, 
moves  majestically  along.  In  the  distance  your 
eyes  detect  a beautiful  lake  with  shores  fringed 
with  trees,  but  soon  the  phantom  lake  vanishes, 
while  others,  still  farther  beyond,  appear  and 
vanish  in  rapid  succession.  Like  a great  ball  of 
fire  the  sun  sinks  in  the  west.  The  stars  come  out 
one  by  one  and  shine  brighter  than  elsewhere  as 
if  to  light  you  on  your  way.  Late  at  night  the 
weary  dromedary  kneels,  and  on  the  ground, 
close  beside  her,  you  lie  down  to  sleep.  Again, 
long  before  the  stars  have  been  scattered  by  the 
morning  sun,  you  are  on  your  way.  Day  after 
day  you  travel  on,  scorched  by  the  heat  of  noon- 
day, shivering  in  the  chill  winds  of  the  night.  Two 
weeks  pass,  and  at  last  you  stand  on  the  eastern 
edge  of  the  plateau  gazing  down  upon  the  great 
Euphrates  winding  along  the  valley  beneath. 
You  have  crossed  the  Arabian  Desert,  the  first 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


4i 


stage  of  the  long  journey  to  the  walls  of  Babylon. 
Here  in  the  valley  the  water  is  sweet  and  the  food 
abundant.  For  ten  days  you  follow  down  the 
river,  through  little  villages  and  black  tent  en- 
campments, among  scenes  of  strange  Arab  life 
which  never  lose  their  charm.  Everywhere  the 
valley  is  dotted  with  the  mounds  of  buried  cities 
carefully  guarding  the  secrets  of  the  centuries  of 
long  ago.  At  last  you  see  before  you  a mound 
rising  like  a mountain  from  the  level  plain.  Your 
journey  is  at  an  end.  Before  you  is  Babylon,  the 
“Gate  of  God,”  as  the  old  name  means.  About 
you  is  all  that  remains  of  the  second  of  the  Seven 
Wonders  of  the  World. 

Babylon,  even  in  the  days  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
was  an  old,  old  city.  There  is  a Hebrew  tradition 
that  it  was  the  oldest  of  all  cities,  but  now  we 
know  that  great  empires  flourished  and  passed 
away  before  Babylon  was  built.  Old  King  Sargon 
I.,  who  may  have  lived  as  early  as  3800  b.c., 
seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  mention  Baby- 
lon, and  one  of  his  inscriptions  seems  to  say 
that  he  built  the  city  and  gave  it  its  name. 
But  in  those  very  early  days  Babylon  was  little 
more  than  a shrine,  surrounded  with  mud  huts 


42 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


and  date-palms.  It  was  about  2250  B.C.,  when 
the  great  Hammurabi  made  it  his  capital,  that  it 
became  the  chief  city  of  Babylonia.  Its  history 
for  the  next  fifteen  hundred  years  or  more  is  ob- 
scure. We  know  the  names  of  its  kings,  and  the 
records  speak  of  long  wars  with  the  Assyrians. 
In  the  year  689  B.C.,  Sinacherib,  King  of  Nineveh, 
captured  Babylon,  tore  down  its  palaces  and  tem- 
ples and  walls,  and  scraped  even  the  foundations 
of  the  city  into  the  river.  The  place  where  the 
old  city  had  stood  for  three  thousand  years  again 
became  a desert. 

Esarhaddon,  the  son  of  Sinacherib,  was  the  next 
King  of  Nineveh.  He  rebuilt  Babylon  that  in 
accordance  with  the  ancient  custom  he  might  be 
crowned  in  the  sacred  city.  When  Esarhaddon 
died,  one  of  his  sons,  Samas-sum-yukin,  was  made 
King  of  Babylon.  Another  son,  Assurbanipal,  or 
the  great  Sardanapalus  of  the  Greeks,  became  the 
King  of  Nineveh.  War  broke  out  between  the 
two  brothers,  and  again  Babylon  was  captured. 
In  626  Assurbanipal  died,  and  in  that  same  year 
Nabopolassar,  the  father  of  the  great  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, became  the  King  of  Babylon.  The  build- 
ing of  the  Babylon  so  famous  in  history  began 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


43 


with  Nabopolassar.  He  enlarged  the  old  city, 
erected  temples,  and  began  the  construction  of  its 
walls.  In  606,  Nineveh,  the  old  enemy  of  Baby- 
lon, fell,  never  to  rise  again.  The  next  year,  in 
605,  Nabopolassar  died,  and  Nebuchadnezzar 
succeeded  him  to  the  throne.  He  continued  the 
building  operations  of  his  father,  until  Babylon 
became  the  greatest  city  of  its  age,  and  surrounded 
it  with  walls  the  like  of  which  no  other  city  has 
ever  seen. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  or  Nebuchadrezzar,  as  his 
name  should  be  spelled,  was  the  greatest  character 
in  Babylonian  history,  but  about  his  name  so 
many  legends  have  grown  that  it  is  sometimes 
difficult  to  learn  the  facts  of  his  life.  Early  he 
married  Amuhia,  a daughter  of  the  Median  king. 
His  military  career  began  while  he  was  still  the 
crown  prince,  and  his  father  was  on  the  throne. 
In  605,  at  the  head  of  the  Babylonian  army,  he 
defeated  the  Egyptians  in  the  famous  battle  of 
Carchemish,  the  old  Hittite  capital,  and  drove 
them  from  Asia.  Then  Syria  and  Palestine  were 
added  to  his  future  empire.  In  597,  when  he  sent 
his  army  to  Jerusalem,  he  won  the  hatred  of  the 
Jews  by  taking  Jehoiakin,  the  King,  captive. 


44 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


Eleven  years  later,  in  586,  he  destroyed  the  sacred 
Hebrew  city,  transported  the  Jews  to  Babylon,  and 
brought  the  Hebrew  kingdom  to  an  end.  Centuries 
afterward,  even  to  this  day,  Jewish  mothers  teach 
their  children  to  hate  his  name.  They  tell  how 
he  forced  the  exiles  to  carry  heavy  bags  of  sand 
across  the  desert  to  increase  their  burdens;  how 
he  cast  Hebrew  lads  into  a fiery  furnace  and  into 
the  lions’  den,  and  how,  in  punishment  for  all  his 
wickedness,  he  became  a calf,  and  for  seven  years 
grazed  the  grass  in  the  fields  about  the  city.  Late 
in  his  life,  in  567,  he  invaded  Egypt.  During  all 
his  reign  there  was  little  peace  in  his  great  mixed 
turbulent  empire. 

The  walls  of  the  palaces  of  many  of  the  Assyrian 
kings  were  lined  with  great  stone  slabs  engraved 
with  reliefs  and  sometimes  with  the  portrait  of  a 
king.  But  in  Babylonia  stone  was  difficult  to 
obtain,  and  sculptures  were  very  rare.  Therefore 
it  was  useless  to  hope  that  Nebuchadnezzar’s 
portrait  would  be  found  on  his  palace  walls.  How- 
ever, several  decades  ago,  an  Oriental  appeared  at 
the  Berlin  Museum,  offering  for  sale  a small  cameo 
engraved  with  a helmeted  head  of  a Greek  type. 
About  the  head  was  an  inscription  in  Greek  char- 


Nebuchadnezzar’s 

Cameo 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


45 


acters  saying  that  the  face  was  that  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar. The  museum  authorities  believed  that 
the  cameo  was  one  of  the  many  spurious  objects 
which  the  Eastern  forgers  were  constantly  sending 
to  Europe,  yet  they  took  an  impression  of  it,  and 
returned  it  to  its  owner.  Years  later,  when  the 
archaeologists  could  readily  distinguish  the  false 
from  the  true,  it  was  recognized  that  the  cameo 
was  genuine,  and  that  it  bore  the  likeness  of  the 
great  King.  Unfortunately,  the  little  stone  seal, 
perhaps  the  only  one  to  preserve  for  us  his  fea- 
tures, appears  to  have  been  lost  for  ever.  Its 
impression  shows  the  face  of  a beardless  young 
man,  intelligent  and  refined.  The  eyes  are  sug- 
gestive of  the  Semitic ; the  nose  is  of  the  Greek  type ; 
the  lips  are  thin,  the  chin  prominent ; the  neck  is 
that  of  a strong  vigorous  man.  Such  was  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  builder  of  the  walls  of  Babylon. 

Religion  and  cruelty  frequently  go  hand  in  hand, 
and  Nebuchadnezzar  was  exceedingly  religious. 
Though  a great  warrior,  it  was  not  for  his  military 
deeds  that  he  was  best  known.  He  was  fond  of 
restoring  the  ruined  temples  of  the  old  Babylonian 
cities,  and  most  of  the  records  which  have  come 
from  his  time  speak  chiefly  of  his  deeds  of  piety. 


46 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


Read  the  introduction  to  any  of  his  inscriptions, 
of  which  the  following  is  one,  and  you  will  call  him 
vain  and  proud,  but  his  scribe  wrote  it  in  the  man- 
ner customary  for  the  scribes  of  those  days  to 
write  of  their  royal  masters. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  King  of  Babylon,  the  exalted 
prince,  the  favourite  of  Marduk,  the  lofty  patesi , the 
beloved  of  Nabu,  the  arbiter,  the  possessor  of  wisdom, 
who  seeks  out  the  path  of  their  divinity,  who  rever- 
ences their  lordship;  the  untiring  governor,  who 
ponders  daily  concerning  the  maintenance  of  Esagil 
and  Ezida,  and  is  continually  anxious  for  the  shrines 
of  Babylon  and  Borsippa;  the  wise,  the  pious,  the 
maintainer  of  Esagil  and  Ezida,  the  first-born  son 
of  Nabopolassar,  King  of  Babylon,  am  I. 

However  cruel  and  religiously  intolerant  Nebu- 
chadnezzar may  have  been,  he  was  undoubtedly 
the  greatest  builder  the  world  has  ever  seen.  There 
is  scarcely  one  of  the  thousands  of  ruin  mounds 
in  Babylonia  which  does  not  contain  bricks  bearing 
his  name.  There  is  scarcely  a royal  record  from 
his  reign  which  is  not  chiefly  occupied  with  descrip- 
tions of  his  building  operations.  He  rebuilt 
scores  of  the  ancient  temples,  surrounded  many 
cities  with  walls,  lined  the  shores  of  the  rivers  with 


THE  WALLS  OF  BAB  YLON 


47 


embankments,  and  spanned  the  rivers  with  bridges. 
Tradition  says  that  to  please  his  foreign  wife  from 
the  mountainous  country  he  built  the  famous 
hanging  gardens,  but  that  may  be  only  a tradition. 
His  palace  in  Babylon  was  one  of  the  world’s 
largest  buildings,  but  the  walls  with  which  he 
protected  his  palace  and  city  were  the  wonder  of 
the  whole  world.  The  ancients  never  tired  of 
describing  them.  Fortunately  in  several  of  his 
long  inscriptions,  recently  discovered  in  the  Baby- 
lonian mounds,  Nebuchadnezzar  speaks  of  the 
building  of  the  walls.  In  one  of  them  he  says: 

I completed  Imgur-Bel  and  Nimitti-Bel,  the  great 
walls  of  Babylon,  the  mighty  city,  the  city  of  his 
exalted  power.  At  the  entrance  of  the  great  gates 
I erected  strong  bulls  of  bronze,  and  terrible  serpents 
standing  upright.  My  father  did  that  which  no 
previous  king  had  done.  With  mortar  and  bricks 
he  built  two  moat-walls  about  the  city,  and  I,  with 
mortar  and  bricks,  built  a third  great  moat- wall,  and 
joined  it  and  united  it  closely  with  the  moat-walls  of 
my  father.  I laid  its  foundation  deep  to  the  water 
level;  I raised  its  summit  mountain  high.  I con- 
structed a moat-wall  of  burned  bricks  about  the  west 
wall  of  Babylon. 

My  father  built  the  moat-wall  of  the  Arachtu  canal 
securely  with  mortar  and  bricks.  He  built  well  the 


48 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


quays  along  the  opposite  shore  of  the  Euphrates, 
but  he  did  not  finish  all  his  work,  but  I,  his  first-born, 
the  beloved  of  his  heart,  built  the  moat-walls  of 
Arachtu  with  mortar  and  bricks,  and,  joining  them 
together  with  those  of  my  father,  made  them  very 
solid. 

A thing  which  no  king  before  had  ever  done : 

To  the  west  of  Babylon,  at  a greater  distance  from 
the  outer  wall,  I constructed  an  enclosing  wall  four 
thousand  cubits  in  length  about  the  city.  I dug  its 
moat  to  the  water  level.  I walled  up  its  side  with 
mortar  and  burned  bricks,  and  I united  it  securely 
with  the  moat-walls  of  my  father.  Along  its  edge  I 
built  a great  wall  of  mortar  and  burned  bricks  moun- 
tain high. 

Berossus,  a priest  of  the  temple  of  Bel  at  Baby- 
lon, writing  about  250  R.c.,  was  living  in  the  city 
while  the  walls  were  still  standing,  though  in  a 
ruinous  condition.  His  brief  description  of  them 
should  not  be  omitted.  He  says  that  Nebuchad- 
nezzar 

built  three  walls  round  about  the  inner  city,  and  three 
others  about  that  which  was  the  outer;  and  this  he 
did  with  burnt  brick.  And  after  he  had  walled  the 
city,  and  adorned  its  gates,  he  built  another  palace 
before  his  father’s  palace;  but  so  that  they  joined 
to  it:  to  describe  whose  vast  height  and  immense 
riches  it  would  perhaps  be  too  much  for  me  to  attempt. 


Nebuchadnezzar’s  Cylinder 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


49 


Yet  as  large  and  lofty  as  they  were,  they  were  com- 
pleted in  fifteen  days.  He  also  erected  elevated 
places  for  walking,  of  stone;  and  made  it  resemble 
mountains:  and  built  it  so  that  it  might  be  planted 
with  all  sorts  of  trees.  He  also  erected  what  is  called 
a pensile  paradise:  because  his  wife  was  desirous  to 
have  things  like  her  own  country;  she  having  been 
bred  up  in  the  palaces  of  Media. 

Of  all  the  ancient  descriptions  of  the  famous 
walls  and  the  cit}r  they  protected,  that  of  Herodo- 
tus is  the  fullest.  Perhaps  Herodotus  had  never 
been  in  Babylon;  perhaps  the  tales  that  travellers 
told  him  were  exaggerated  as  travellers’  tales  are 
likely  to  be,  yet  he  at  least  tried  to  be  accurate. 
He  says: 

The  city  stands  on  a broad  plain,  and  is  an  exact 
square,  a hundred  and  twenty  furlongs  in  length  each 
way,  so  that  the  entire  circuit  is  four  hundred  and 
eighty  furlongs.  While  such  is  its  size,  in  magnifi- 
cence there  is  no  other  city  that  approaches  to  it. 
It  is  surrounded,  in  the  first  place,  by  a broad  and 
deep  moat,  full  of  water,  behind  which  rises  a wall 
fifty  royal  cubits  in  width,  and  two  hundred  in  height. 

And  here  I may  not  omit  to  tell  the  use  to  which 
the  mould  dug  out  of  the  great  moat  was  turned,  nor 
the  manner  wherein  the  wall  was  wrought.  As  fast 
as  they  dug  the  moat,  the  soil  which  they  got  from 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


50 


the  cutting  was  made  into  bricks,  and  when  a suffi- 
cient number  were  completed  they  baked  the  bricks 
in  kilns.  Then  they  set  to  building,  and  began  by 
bricking  the  borders  of  the  moat,  after  which  they 
proceeded  to  construct  the  wall  itself,  using  through- 
out for  their  cement  hot  bitumen,  and  interposing  a 
layer  of  wattled  reeds  at  every  thirtieth  course  of  the 
bricks.  On  the  top,  along  the  edges  of  the  wall,  they 
constructed  buildings  of  a single  chamber  facing  one 
another,  leaving  between  them  room  for  a four-horse 
chariot  to  turn.  In  the  circuit  of  the  wall  are  a hund- 
red gates,  all  of  brass,  with  brazen  lintels  and  side- 
posts.  The  bitumen  used  in  the  work  was  brought 
to  Babylon  from  Is,  a small  stream  which  flows  into 
the  Euphrates  at  the  point  where  the  city  of  the  same 
name  stands,  eight  days'  journey  from  Babylon. 
Lumps  of  bitumen  are  found  in  great  abundance  in 
this  river. 

The  city  is  divided  into  two  portions  by  the  river 
which  runs  through  the  midst  of  it.  This  river  is  the 
Euphrates,  a broad,  deep,  swift  stream,  which  rises 
in  Armenia,  and  empties  itself  into  the  Erythraean 
Sea.  The  city  wall  is  brought  down  on  both  sides 
to  the  edge  of  the  stream,  thence  from  the  corners 
of  the  wall  there  is  carried  along  each  bank  of  the 
river  a fence  of  burned  bricks.  The  houses  are  mostly 
three  and  four  stories  high;  the  streets  all  run  in 
straight  lines,  not  only  those  parallel  to  the  river, 
but  also  the  cross  streets  which  lead  down  to  the 
water-side.  At  the  river  end  of  these  cross  streets 
are  low  gates  in  the  fence  that  skirts  the  stream,  which 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


5i 


are,  like  the  great  gates  in  the  outer  wall,  of  brass, 
and  open  on  the  water. 

The  outer  wall  is  the  main  defence  of  the  city. 
There  is,  however,  a second  inner  wall,  of  less  thick- 
ness than  the  first,  but  very  little  inferior  to  it  in 
strength.  The  centre  of  each  division  of  the  town 
is  occupied  by  a fortress.  In  the  one  stood  the  palace 
of  the  kings,  surrounded  by  a wall  of  great  strength 
and  size;  in  the  other  was  the  sacred  precinct  of  Jupiter 
Belus,  a square  enclosure  two  furlongs  each  way, 
with  gates  of  solid  brass;  which  was  also  remaining 
in  my  time.  In  the  middle  of  the  precinct  there  was 
a tower  of  solid  masonry,  a furlong  in  length  and 
breadth,  upon  which  was  raised  a second  tower,  and 
on  that  a third,  and  so  on  up  to  eight.  The  ascent 
to  the  top  is  on  the  outside,  by  a path  which  winds 
round  all  the  towers.  When  one  is  about  halfway 
up,  one  finds  a resting  place  and  seats,  where  persons 
are  wont  to  sit  sometimes  on  their  way  to  the  summit. 
(Book  I.,  chapters  178-181.) 

Other  ancient  descriptions  of  the  walls  have 
been  left  us  by  Ctesias  of  the  fifth  century  B.C., 
and  by  Strabo  of  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era,  but  they  add  little  to  our  knowledge.  Should 
we  compare  these  ancient  descriptions  of  the  walls, 
we  should  find  them  hopelessly  conflicting.  How- 
ever, they  teach  us  that  in  those  early  days  when 
most  cities  were  surrounded  by  enormous  walls, 


52 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


the  walls  of  Babylon  were  so  long  and  wide  and 
high  that  all  who  saw  them  were  amazed.  It  is 
only  from  their  ruins  that  we  may  hope  to  obtain 
accurate  information  of  the  strongest  fortifications 
in  the  ancient  world. 

In  the  year  562,  after  a long  reign  of  forty-three 
years,  Nebuchadnezzar  died.  He  was  followed 
by  three  kings  whose  reigns  were  short,  and  in  555 
Nabonidus,  the  father  of  the  Biblical  Belshazzar, 
came  to  the  throne.  Cyrus,  the  King  of  Persia, 
was  rising  to  power,  and  after  he  had  defeated 
the  Medes  he  extended  his  empire  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  even  to  Egypt.  Perhaps  Babylon 
was  so  strongly  fortified  that  at  first  he  made  no 
attempt  to  add  it  to  his  empire,  but  when  Nabo- 
nidus joined  with  the  King  of  Egypt  and  with  the 
wealthy  Croesus  of  Lydia  in  an  alliance  against 
him,  Cyrus  decided  that  Babylon  must  be  taken. 
In  538  the  city  fell,  and  for  a time  it  became  the 
home  of  the  Persian  King. 

The  fall  of  Babylon  with  its  lofty  walls  was  a 
most  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  ancient 
world.  A great  empire  which  had  existed  for 
more  than  three  thousand  years  was  brought  to 
an  end.  The  old  enemies  of  Babylon  rejoiced. 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


53 


When  the  news  came  to  the  Hebrews,  who  were 
held  there  in  exile,  they  excitedly  rushed  about 
the  streets,  crying:  “Babylon  is  fallen,”  and  to 
them  came  hope  of  returning  to  Jerusalem. 

But  how  did  the  “mighty  city”  fall?  How 
could  Cyrus  take  Babylon  whose  walls  were  strong 
enough  to  resist  any  army?  It  is  a long  story. 
Poets  have  sung  it.  Historians  have  written  it. 
Prophets  have  preached  it.  Legends  have  gathered 
about  it.  Every  child  knows  the  story  of  “the 
writing  of  the  hand  on  the  wall.”  It  was  the  night 
that  Babylon  fell.  Belshazzar,  the  King, — he  was 
really  the  King’s  son, — gave  a feast  to  a thou- 
sand of  his  nobles.  In  the  great  banquet  hall  of 
the  palace,  when  the  guests  were  drinking  from 
the  golden  cups,  and  the  revelry  was  at  its  highest, 
there  suddenly  appeared  upon  the  wall  an  armless 
hand.  High  up,  where  all  might  see  it,  the  armless 
hand  wrote  the  King’s  fate.  “Thou  art  weighed 
in  the  balances  and  art  found  wanting.”  “In  that 
night,”  so  the  story  ends,  “Belshazzar,  the  Chal- 
dean King,  was  slain.” 

Less  picturesque  than  this  Hebrew  legend  is  the 
royal  record  of  Babylon,  which  fortunately  was 
inscribed  upon  a clay  cylinder  from  the  ruins  of 


54 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


the  city.  It  refers  to  the  death  of  the  King’s  son, 
possibly  to  Belshazzar  of  the  Bible  story. 

In  the  month  Tammuz,  when  Cyrus  fought  the 
troops  of  Akkad  [Babylonia]  at  Opis  on  the  river 
Salsallat,  he  subdued  the  people,  and  wherever  they 
collected,  he  slew  them.  On  the  fourteenth  day  Sip- 
par  was  taken  without  a battle.  Nabonidus  fled. 
On  the  sixteenth  day  the  troops  of  Cyrus  entered 
Babylon  without  a battle.  Nabonidus  was  taken 
prisoner  in  Babylon.  On  the  third  of  Marches  van 
Cyrus  entered  Babylon  and  proclaimed  peace  to  all 
the  city.  He  appointed  Gobrias  governor  of  Baby- 
lon. On  the  night  of  the  eleventh  day  Gobrias  killed 
the  son  of  the  King. 

Nor  does  the  royal  record  of  Babylon  contain 
the  only  contemporary  account  of  the  fall  of  the 
city,  for  upon  a barrel-shaped  cylinder  of  clay 
bearing  a long  inscription  we  have  Cyrus’s  account 
of  his  capture  of  Babylon.  Extracts  from  it  are 
as  follows : 

Marduk,  the  great  lord,  looking  with  joy  on  his 
pious  works  and  upright  heart,  commanded  him 
[Cyrus]  to  go  forth  to  his  city  Babylon,  and  he  went 
by  his  side  as  a friend  and  companion.  His  many 
troops,  whose  number,  like  the  waters  of  the  river, 
could  not  be  counted,  marched  in  full  armour  at  his 
side.  Without  a skirmish  or  a battle,  he  permitted 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


55 


them  to  enter  Babylon,  and,  sparing  the  city,  he  deliv- 
ered the  King  Nabonidus  to  him.  All  the  people  of 
Babylon  prostrated  themselves  before  him,  and,  kissing 
his  feet,  rejoiced  in  his  sovereignty,  while  happiness 
shone  on  their  faces. 

The  inscription  continues: 

I am  Cyrus,  king  of  the  world.  . . . When  I made 
my  gracious  entry  into  Babylon,  with  exceeding  joy 
I took  up  my  abode  in  the  royal  palace.  . . . My 
many  troops  marched  peacefully  into  Babylon.  . . . 
I gave  heed  to  the  needs  of  Babylon  and  its  cities, 
and  the  servitude  of  the  Babylonians,  whatever  was 
oppressive,  I removed  from  them.  I quieted  their 
sighings  and  soothed  their  sorrows. 

A much  longer  account  of  the  capture  of  Baby- 
lon by  Cyrus  appears  in  the  writings  of  Herodotus. 
Though  Herodotus  wrote  nearly  a hundred  years 
after  Babylon  fell,  his  story  seems  to  bear  the 
stamp  of  truth.  He  certainly  mentions  details 
which  neither  Nabonidus  nor  Cyrus  would  care 
to  have  appear  in  their  royal  records.  His  story 
is  as  follows : 

Cyrus,  with  the  first  approach  of  the  ensuing  spring, 
marched  forward  against  Babylon.  The  Babylonians, 
encamped  without  their  walls,  awaited  his  coming. 
A battle  was  fought  at  a short  distance  from  the  city, 


56 


THE  SEVEN  IVONDERS 


in  which  the  Babylonians  were  defeated  by  the  Per- 
sian King,  whereupon  they  withdrew  within  their 
defences.  Here  they  shut  themselves  up  and  made 
light  of  his  siege,  having  laid  in  a store  of  provision 
for  many  years  in  preparation  against  this  attack; 
for  when  they  saw  Cyrus  conquering  nation  after 
nation,  they  were  convinced  that  he  would  never  stop, 
and  their  turn  would  come  at  last. 

Cyrus  was  now  reduced  to  great  perplexity,  as  time 
went  on  and  he  made  no  progress  against  the  place. 
In  this  distress  either  someone  made  this  suggestion 
to  him,  or  he  bethought  himself  of  a plan  which  he 
proceeded  to  put  in  execution.  He  placed  a portion 
of  his  army  at  the  point  where  the  river  enters  the 
city,  and  another  body  at  the  back  of  the  place  where 
it  issues  forth,  with  orders  to  march  into  the  town  by 
the  bed  of  the  stream,  as  soon  as  the  water  became 
shallow  enough:  he  then  himself  drew  off  with  the 
unwarlike  portion  of  his  host,  and  made  for  the  place 
where  Nitocris  dug  the  basin  for  the  river,  where  he 
did  exactly  what  she  had  done  formerly:  he  turned 
the  Euphrates  by  a canal  into  the  basin,  which  was 
then  a marsh,  on  which  the  river  sank  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  natural  bed  of  the  stream  became 
fordable.  Hereupon  the  Persians  who  had  been  left 
for  the  purpose  at  Babylon  by  the  river  side,  entered 
the  stream,  which  had  now  sunk  so  as  to  reach  about 
midway  up  a man’s  thigh,  and  thus  got  into  the  town. 
Had  the  Babylonians  been  apprised  of  what  Cyrus 
was  about,  or  had  they  noticed  their  danger,  they 
would  never  have  allowed  the  Persians  to  enter  the 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


57 


city,  but  would  have  destroyed  them  utterly;  for 
they  would  have  made  fast  all  the  street  gates  which 
gave  upon  the  river,  and  mounting  upon  the  walls 
along  both  sides  of  the  stream,  would  so  have  caught 
the  enemy  as  it  were  in  a trap.  But,  as  it  was,  the 
Persians  came  upon  them  by  surprise  and  so  took 
the  city.  Owing  to  the  vast  size  of  the  place,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  central  parts  (as  the  residents  of 
Babylon  declare),  long  after  the  outer  portions  of  the 
town  were  taken,  knew  nothing  of  what  had  chanced, 
but  as  they  were  engaged  in  a festival,  continued 
dancing  and  revelling  until  they  learned  the  capture 
but  too  certainly.  Such,  then,  were  the  circumstances 
of  the  first  taking  of  Babylon.  (Book  L,  chapters  190- 
191.) 

When  Cyrus  took  Babylon,  little  or  no  force  was 
employed.  Only  the  King’s  son,  Belshazzar,  was 
killed.  The  city  was  spared ; the  great  walls  were 
left  standing;  the  daily  sacrifices  were  continued 
in  the  temples,  and  Cyrus  made  his  home  in 
the  royal  palace.  The  people,  enjoying  the  greater 
freedom  which  Cyrus  permitted  them,  were  con- 
tented, and  life  in  Babylon  went  on  about  as  be- 
fore. In  529  Cyrus  died.  During  the  reigns  of 
the  two  following  Persian  kings  Babylon  was 
slowly  regaining  its  independence,  and  in  521 
Nebuchadnezzar  III.,  a native  Babylonian,  was 


58 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


placed  on  the  throne.  Then  the  Babylonians 
secretly  plotted  to  throw  off  the  Persian  yoke. 
That  same  year,  when  Darius  Hystaspes  came  to 
the  Persian  throne,  the  Babylonians  openly  re- 
belled. The  following  story  from  Herodotus  tells 
the  results: 

At  last  when  the  time  came  for  rebelling  openly 
they  did  as  follows : — having  first  set  apart  their 
mothers,  each  man  chose  besides  out  of  his  whole 
household  one  woman  whomsoever  he  pleased;  these 
alone  were  allowed  to  live,  while  all  the  rest  were 
brought  to  one  place  and  strangled.  The  women 
chosen  were  kept  to  make  bread  for  the  men;  while 
the  others  were  strangled  that  they  might  not  consume 
the  stores. 

When  tidings  reached  Darius  of  what  had  happened, 
he  drew  together  all  his  power  and  began  the  war  by 
marching  straight  upon  Babylon  and  laying  siege  to 
the  place.  The  Babylonians,  however,  cared  not  a 
whit  for  his  siege.  Mounting  upon  the  battlements 
that  crowned  their  walls,  they  insulted  and  jeered  at 
Darius  and  his  mighty  host.  One  even  shouted  to 
them  and  said,  “Why  sit  ye  there,  Persians?  Why  do 
ye  not  go  back  to  your  homes?  Till  mules  foal  ye  will 
not  take  our  city!”  This  was  said  by  a Babylonian 
who  thought  that  a mule  would  never  foal. 

Now  when  a year  and  seven  months  had  passed, 
Darius  and  his  army  were  quite  wearied  out,  finding 
that  they  could  not  anyhow  take  the  city.  All  strat- 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


59 


agems  and  all  arts  had  been  used,  and  yet  the  King 
could  not  prevail — not  even  when  he  tried  the  means 
by  which  Cyrus  had  made  himself  master  of  the  place. 
The  Babylonians  were  ever  upon  the  watch,  and  he 
found  no  way  of  conquering  them. 

At  last,  in  the  twentieth  month,  a marvellous  thing 
happened  to  Zopyrus,  son  of  the  Megabyzus  who  was 
among  the  seven  men  that  overthrew  the  Magus. 
One  of  his  sumpter-mules  gave  birth  to  a foal.  Zopy- 
rus, when  they  told  him,  not  thinking  that  it  could  be 
true,  went  and  saw  the  colt  with  his  own  eyes;  after 
which  he  commanded  his  servants  to  tell  no  one  what 
had  come  to  pass,  while  he  himself  pondered  the 
matter.  Calling  to  mind  then  the  words  of  the  Baby- 
lonian at  the  beginning  of  the  siege:  “Till  mules  foal 
ye  shall  not  take  our  city,”  he  thought,  as  he  re- 
flected on  this  speech,  that  Babylon  might  now  be 
taken,  for  it  seemed  to  him  that  there  was  a divine 
providence  in  the  man  having  used  the  phrase,  and 
then  his  mule  having  foaled. 

As  soon  therefore  as  he  felt  within  himself  that 
Babylon  was  fated  to  be  taken,  he  went  to  Darius 
and  asked  him  if  he  set  a very  high  value  on  its  con- 
quest. When  he  found  that  Darius  did  indeed  value 
it  highly,  he  considered  further  with  himself  how  he 
might  make  the  deed  his  own,  and  be  the  man  to 
take  Babylon.  Noble  exploits  in  Persia  are  ever 
highly  honoured  and  bring  their  authors  to  great- 
ness. He  therefore  reviewed  all  ways  of  bringing 
the  city  under,  but  found  none  by  which  he  could 
hope  to  prevail,  unless  he  maimed  himself  and  then 


6o 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


went  over  to  the  enemy.  To  do  this  seeming  to  him 
a light  matter,  he  mutilated  himself  in  a way  that 
was  utterly  without  remedy.  For  he  cut  off  his  own 
nose  and  ears,  and  then,  clipping  his  hair  close  and 
flogging  himself  with  a scourge,  he  came  in  this  plight 
before  Darius. 

Wrath  stirred  within  the  King  at  the  sight  of  a man 
of  his  lofty  rank  in  such  a condition;  leaping  down 
from  his  throne  he  exclaimed  aloud  and  asked  Zopyrus 
who  it  was  that  had  disfigured  him,  and  what  he  had 
done  to  be  so  treated.  Zopyrus  answered,  “There  is 
not  a man  in  the  world,  but  thou,  0 King,  that  could 
reduce  me  to  such  a plight — no  stranger’s  hands  have 
wrought  this  work  on  me,  but  my  own  only.  I 
maimed  myself  because  I could  not  endure  that  the 
Assyrians  should  laugh  at  the  Persians.”  “Wretched 
man,”  said  Darius,  “thou  coverest  the  foulest  deeds 
with  the  fairest  possible  name,  when  thou  sayest  thy 
maiming  is  to  help  our  siege  forward.  How  will  thy 
disfigurement,  thou  simpleton,  induce  the  enemy  to 
yield  one  day  sooner?  Surely  thou  hadst  gone  out 
of  thy  mind  when  thou  didst  so  misuse  thyself.” 
“Had  I told  thee,”  rejoined  the  other,  “what  I was 
bent  on  doing,  thou  wouldst  not  have  suffered  it;  as 
it  is,  I kept  my  own  counsel,  and  so  accomplished  my 
plans.  Now,  therefore,  if  there  be  no  failure  on  thy 
part,  we  shall  take  Babylon.  I will  desert  to  the 
enemy  as  I am,  and  when  I get  into  their  city  I will 
tell  them  that  it  is  by  thee  that  I have  been  thus 
treated.  I think  they  will  believe  my  words  and 
entrust  me  with  a command  of  troops.  Thou,  on 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


61 


thy  part,  must  wait  till  the  tenth  day  after  I am 
entered  within  the  town,  and  then  place  near  to  the 
gates  of  Semiramis  a detachment  of  thy  army,  troops 
for  whose  loss  thou  wilt  care  little,  a thousand  men. 
Wait,  after  that,  seven  days,  and  post  me  another 
detachment,  two  thousand  strong,  at  the  Nineveh 
gates;  then  let  twenty  days  pass,  and  at  the  end  of 
that  time  station  near  the  Chaldaean  gates  a body  of 
four  thousand.  Let  neither  these  nor  the  former 
troops  be  armed  with  any  weapons  but  their  swords — 
those  thou  mayest  leave  them.  After  the  twenty 
days  are  over,  bid  thy  whole  army  attack  the  city  on 
every  side,  and  put  me  two  bodies  of  Persians,  one 
at  the  Belian,  the  other  at  the  Cissian  gates;  for  I 
expect  that,  on  account  of  my  successes,  the  Baby- 
lonians will  entrust  everything,  even  the  keys  of  their 
gates,  to  me.  Then  it  will  be  for  me  and  my  Persians 
to  do  the  rest.” 

Having  left  these  instructions,  Zopyrus  fled  towards 
the  gates  of  the  town,  often  looking  back,  to  give 
himself  the  air  of  a deserter.  The  men  upon  the 
towers,  whose  business  it  was  to  keep  a lookout,  ob- 
serving him,  hastened  down,  and  setting  one  of  the 
gates  slightly  ajar,  questioned  him  who  he  was,  and 
on  what  errand  he  had  come.  He  replied  that  he 
was  Zopyrus,  and  deserted  to  them  from  the  Persians. 
Then  the  doorkeepers,  when  they  heard  this,  carried 
him  at  once  before  the  Magistrates.  Introduced 
into  their  assembly,  he  began  to  bewail  his  misfor- 
tunes, telling  them  that  Darius  had  maltreated  him 
in  the  way  they  could  see,  only  because  he  had  given 


62 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


advice  that  the  siege  should  be  raised,  since  there 
seemed  no  hope  of  taking  the  city.  “And  now,”  he 
went  on  to  say,  “my  coming  to  you,  Babylonians, 
will  prove  the  greatest  gain  that  you  could  possibly 
receive,  while  to  Darius  and  the  Persians  it  will  be 
the  severest  loss.  Verily  he  by  whom  I have  been 
so  mutilated  shall  not  escape  unpunished.  And 
truly  all  the  paths  of  his  counsels  are  known  to  me.” 
Thus  did  Zopyrus  speak. 

The  Babylonians,  seeing  a Persian  of  such  exalted 
rank  in  so  grievous  a plight,  his  nose  and  ears  cut  off, 
his  body  red  with  marks  of  scourging  and  with  blood, 
had  no  suspicion  but  that  he  spoke  the  truth,  and  was 
really  come  to  be  their  friend  and  helper.  They  were 
ready,  therefore,  to  grant  him  anything  he  asked; 
and  on  his  suing  for  a command,  they  entrusted  to 
him  a body  of  troops  with  the  help  of  which  he  pro- 
ceeded to  do  as  he  had  arranged  with  Darius.  On  the 
tenth  day  after  his  flight  he  led  out  his  detachment, 
and  surrounding  the  thousand  men,  whom  Darius 
according  to  agreement  had  sent  first,  he  fell  upon 
them  and  slew  them  all.  Then  the  Babylonians, 
seeing  that  his  deeds  were  as  brave  as  his  words,  were 
beyond  measure  pleased,  and  set  no  bounds  to  their 
trust.  He  waited,  however,  and  when  the  next  period 
agreed  on  had  elapsed,  again  with  a band  of  picked 
men  he  sallied  forth,  and  slaughtered  the  two  thou- 
sand. After  this  second  exploit,  his  praise  was  in  all 
mouths.  Once  more,  however,  he  waited  till  the 
interval  appointed  had  gone  by,  and  then  leading 
the  troops  to  the  place  where  the  four  thousand  were, 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


63 


he  put  them  also  to  the  sword.  This  last  victory 
gave  him  the  finishing  stroke  to  his  power  and  made 
him  all  in  all  with  the  Babylonians:  accordingly  they 
committed  to  him  the  command  of  their  whole  army, 
and  put  the  keys  of  their  city  into  his  hands. 

Darius  now,  still  keeping  to  the  plan  agreed  upon, 
attacked  the  walls  on  every  side,  whereupon  Zopyrus 
played  out  the  remainder  of  his  stratagem.  While  the 
Babylonians,  crowding  to  the  walls,  did  their  best  to 
resist  the  Persian  assault,  he  threw  open  the  Cissian 
and  Belian  gates,  and  admitted  the  enemy.  Such 
of  the  Babylonians  as  witnessed  the  treachery  took 
refuge  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Belus;  the  rest  who 
did  not  see  it  kept  at  their  posts,  till  at  last  they  too 
learned  that  they  were  betrayed. 

Thus  was  Babylon  taken  for  the  second  time. 
Darius  having  become  master  of  the  place,  destroyed 
the  wall,  and  tore  down  all  the  gates;  for  Cyrus  had 
done  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  when  he  took 
Babylon,  tie  then  chose  out  near  three  thousand  of 
the  leading  citizens  and  caused  them  to  be  crucified, 
while  he  allowed  the  remainder  still  to  inhabit  the 
city.  Further,  wishing  to  prevent  the  race  of  the 
Babylonians  from  becoming  extinct,  he  provided 
wives  for  them  in  the  room  of  those  whom  (as  I ex- 
plained before)  they  strangled  to  save  their  stores. 
These  he  levied  from  the  nations  bordering  on  Baby- 
lonia, who  were  each  required  to  send  so  large  a num- 
ber to  Babylon,  that  in  all  there  were  collected  no 
fewer  than  fifty  thousand.  It  is  from  these  women 
that  the  Babylonians  of  our  times  are  sprung. 


64 


THE  SEVEN  IVONDERS 


As  for  Zopyrus  he  was  considered  by  Darius  to 
have  surpassed,  in  the  greatness  of  his  achievements, 
all  other  Persians,  whether  of  former  or  of  later  times, 
except  only  Cyrus — with  whom  no  person  ever  yet 
thought  himself  worthy  to  compare.  Darius,  as  the 
story  goes,  would  often  say  that  “he  had  rather 
Zopyrus  were  unmaimed,  than  be  master  of  twenty 
more  Baby  Ions.”  And  he  honoured  Zopyrus  greatly; 
year  by  year  he  presented  him  with  all  the  gifts  which 
are  held  in  most  esteem  among  the  Persians;  he  gave 
him  likewise  the  government  of  Babylon  for  his  life, 
free  from  tribute,  and  he  also  granted  him  many 
other  favours.  (Book  III.,  chapters  150-160.) 

How  much  truth  there  may  be  in  this  interest- 
ing tale  of  Herodotus,  we  may  never  know,  yet  we 
may  be  sure  that  Babylon  was  taken  by  Darius 
only  by  use  of  stratagem.  Its  walls  were  impreg- 
nable. Cyrus  had  permitted  them  to  stand,  and 
as  long  as  he  made  Babylon  his  home,  the  city 
was  as  strongly  protected  as  ever.  Darius,  who 
besieged  the  rebellious  city  twice,  weakened  it 
by  destroying  some  of  its  walls.  During  the 
reign  of  Xerxes  again  the  city  rebelled,  and  in  484 
B.c.  he  captured  it,  and  completely  demolished 
its  defences.  Yet  Babylon  continued  to  live,  for 
history  mentions  the  names  of  two  of  its  later 
rulers.  The  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar  was  occu- 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


65 


pied  by  Alexander  the  Great,  and  there  on  June 
13,  323  b.c.,  he  met  his  death.  The  city  then  fell 
to  Seleucus,  one  of  Alexander’s  generals,  who  for 
a time  made  it  his  home,  but  he  was  a Greek  and 
cared  little  for  things  Babylonian.  Therefore,  to 
destroy  the  power  of  the  old  capital,  he  planned 
to  build  Seleucia  on  the  Tigris  about  fifty  miles 
to  the  east.  The  priests  of  the  temple  of  Bel,  so 
a story  tells  us,  learned  of  his  purpose,  and  when 
they  were  consulted  as  to  the  most  favourable  time 
for  beginning  the  work  upon  the  new  city,  they 
intentionally  mentioned  a most  unfavourable 
hour.  The  priests’  deception  was  unavailing, 
and  in  275  B.C.,  the  inhabitants  of  Babylon  were 
transported  to  Seleucia.  Then  the  world-metrop- 
olis, stripped  of  most  of  its  population,  became  a 
mere  village.  The  poor  of  the  surrounding  coun- 
try occupied  its  dismantled  palaces.  The  Hebrew 
exiles,  whose  ancestors  Nebuchadnezzar  had 
brought  from  Jerusalem,  settled  there,  and  finally 
the  place  was  abandoned  to  the  Arabs  of  the  desert. 
Slowly  the  few  remaining  walls  fell,  and  were 
buried  in  their  own  ruins.  As  the  centuries  passed 
the  mounds  into  which  the  city  had  turned  grew 
higher  and  higher  with  the  ruins  of  the  huts  later 


66 


THE  SEVEN  BONDERS 


built  upon  them,  until  at  last  the  foundations  of 
the  temples  and  palaces  were  buried  fully  a hund- 
red feet  beneath  the  surface.  Even  the  shepherds 
ceased  to  graze  their  sheep  there,  and  the  wander- 
ing Arabs,  fearing  the  wild  beasts  and  evil  spirits 
which  lurk  among  all  old  ruins,  refused  to  pitch 
their  tents  there.  The  prophecy  of  the  Hebrew 
Isaiah  was  fulfilled : 


Wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall  lie  there;  and  their 
houses  shall  be  full  of  doleful  creatures,  and  owls  shall 
dwell  there,  and  satyrs  shall  dance  there,  and  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  islands  shall  cry  in  their  desolate 
houses,  and  dragons  in  their  pleasant  palaces. 


So  Babylon  was  buried  and  forgotten.  It  had 
become,  as  Dio  Cassius  said,  “Mounds  and  legends 
and  ruins.”  But  the  walls  of  the  old  city  had  not 
yet  served  their  full  purpose.  The  Sassanian 
kings  of  Persia  were  fond  of  hunting,  and  Babylon, 
then  overgrown  with  trees,  was  their  game  pre- 
serve. The  old  walls  were  restored  to  a height 
sufficient  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  animals,  and 
among  the  ruins  the  kings  enjoyed  their  favourite 
sport.  St.  Jerome  said: 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


67 


I was  informed  by  a certain  Elamite  brother,  who 
came  from  those  regions,  and  now  leads  the  life  of  a 
monk  at  Jerusalem,  that  there  is  a royal  hunting 
ground  at  Babylon,  and  that  wild  game  of  every  kind 
is  contained  within  the  circuit  of  its  walls. 

The  statement  of  St.  Jerome  is  confirmed  by 
the  following  passage  from  Zosimus,  a Greek 
writer  of  the  fifth  century  a.d.  : 

As  the  Emperor  Julian  was  marching  forward 
through  Babylonia,  he  passed  other  unimportant 
fortresses,  and  came  at  last  to  a walled  enclosure, 
which  the  natives  pointed  out  as  a royal  hunting 
ground.  It  was  a low  rampart,  enclosing  a wide  space 
planted  with  trees  of  every  sort,  in  which  all  kinds  of 
beasts  were  shut  up;  they  were  supplied  with  food 
by  keepers,  and  gave  the  king  the  opportunity  of 
hunting  whenever  he  felt  inclined.  When  Julian  saw 
this,  he  caused  a large  part  of  the  wall  to  be  over- 
thrown, and  as  the  beasts  escaped  they  were  shot  down 
by  his  soldiers. 

The  walls  of  Babylon  were  destined  to  serve  still 
another  purpose.  The  spread  of  Mohammedan- 
ism caused  new  cities  to  be  built,  and  Babylon 
was  the  quarry  for  their  building  material.  The 
walls  of  Babylon  were  transformed  into  the  sacred 
cities  of  Kerbela  and  Nejef.  In  the  eleventh  cen- 


68 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


tury,  on  the  site  of  the  southern  part  of  Babylon, 
the  city  of  Hillah  was  built.  Hillah  might  be 
called  a child  of  Babylon,  for  it  is  almost  entirely 
constructed  with  Nebuchadnezzar’s  bricks.  The 
walls  of  the  houses  are  built  of  them.  The  court- 
yards and  streets  are  paved  with  them,  and  as  you 
walk  about  the  city  the  name  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
everywhere  meets  your  eye.  Many  of  the  ten 
thousand  people  living  in  Hillah  still  gain  their 
livelihood  by  digging  the  bricks  from  the  ruins 
to  sell  to  the  modern  builders.  The  great  irrigat- 
ing dams  across  the  Euphrates  are  constructed 
entirely  of  them.  The  people  of  Hillah,  too,  are 
a survival  of  Babylonian  times.  Some  are  Arabs 
of  the  same  tribes  which  used  to  roam  the  desert 
in  Nebuchadnezzar’s  days.  Some  are  the  children 
of  the  Hebrew  exiles  of  old.  Some,  calling  them- 
selves Christians,  are  the  descendants  of  Babylo- 
nians, perhaps  of  Nebuchadnezzar  himself.  There 
among  the  ruins  they  still  live  in  the  same  kind 
of  houses,  dressing  the  same,  eating  the  same 
food  as  did  their  ancestors  when  Nebuchadnezzar 
built  the  walls  of  Babylon. 

Among  the  first  of  the  modern  travellers  to  de- 
scribe the  ruins  of  Babylon  was  Anthony  Shirley, 


A Nebuchadnezzar  Brick  from  Babylon 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


69 


an  Englishman  who  visited  Mesopotamia  in  1599. 
In  his  quaint  way  he  says : 

All  the  ground  on  which  Babylon  was  spred  is  left 
now  desolate;  nothing  standing  in  that  Peninsula 
between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  but  only  part, 
and  that  a small  part,  of  the  greate  tower,  which  God 
hath  suffered  to  stand  (if  man  may  speake  so  con- 
fidently of  His  greate  impenetrable  counsels),  for  an 
eternal  Testimony  of  His  greate  work  in  the  confusion 
of  Man’s  pride,  and  that  Arke  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
for  as  perpetual  a memory  of  his  greate  idolatry  and 
condigne  punishment. 

About  that  same  time  Pietro  della  Valle,  an 
Italian,  visited  Babylon,  and  digging  from  the  wall 
an  inscribed  square  brick  bearing  the  name  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  he  took  it  to  Rome  where  it 
may  still  be  seen.  That  was  the  first  object  taken 
from  Babylon  to  Europe;  it  was  the  beginning  of 
the  great  collections  of  Babylonian  antiquities  in 
the  museums  of  the  Western  world. 

Among  the  later  visitors  to  Babylon  was  the 
great  Niebuhr.  In  1812,  James  Claudius  Rich, 
the  British  Resident  at  Bagdad,  made  the  first 
complete  examination  of  the  ruins.  Porter,  Lay- 
ard,  and  Rawlinson  followed  him,  but  the  real 
scientific  exploration  of  Babylon  and  its  walls  was 


7o 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


begun  by  the  Deutsche  Orientgesellschaft,  in  1889, 
and  continued  till  the  summer  of  19 1 5.  For  fifteen 
years  Dr.  Koldewey  and  his  assistants,  with  a 
force  of  two  hundred  native  workmen,  have 
laboured  there  winter  and  summer.  The  enor- 
mous amount  of  debris  which  buried  the  palaces 
and  temples  and  walls  of  Nebuchadnezzar’s  city, 
in  places  to  the  depth  of  a hundred  feet,  has  been 
removed,  and  the  surrounding  city  walls  have  been 
traced. 

The  excavations  have  shown  that  Babylon,  as 
the  ancients  told  us,  was  nearly  square.  The 
Euphrates  flowed  through  it,  but  the  greater  part 
of  the  city  was  on  the  eastern  shore.  The  city 
walls,  of  which  the  ancients  were  so  proud,  ap- 
pear here  and  there  like  low  ridges  far  out  on 
the  plain;  other  parts  of  them  have  disappeared 
entirely.  In  the  northern  part  of  the  enclosure 
to  the  east  of  the  river,  the  large  high  mound, 
which  resembles  a mountain  from  a distance,  still 
bears  the  ancient  name  Babel.  Arabs,  searching 
for  bricks,  have  burrowed  their  way  down  deep 
into  it,  revealing  massive  walls  and  arches.  The 
Germans  maintain  that  it  is  the  ruin  of  the  Tower 
of  Babel.  Here,  it  has  been  suggested,  were  the 


70 


be 

ar 

ye 

fo 

lal 

m< 

an 

in 

re] 

tn 

th 

Ei 

of 

Wc 

pe 

th< 

en 

to 

wt 

be; 

foi 

int 

Ge 

of 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


7i 


famous  hanging  gardens  which  some  ancient 
authors  included  among  the  Seven  Wonders  of 
the  World.  However,  it  is  possible  that  the  hang- 
ing gardens  existed  only  in  the  imagination  of  the 
Greek  writers,  for  none  of  the  many  building  in- 
scriptions from  Nebuchadnezzar  mentions  them. 
Possibly  along  the  terraces  of  the  walls,  or  upon 
the  stages  of  some  lofty  temple  tower,  trees  and 
overhanging  vines  were  planted,  and  thus  the 
travellers’  tales  arose. 

At  a distance  of  about  two  miles  to  the  south  of 
Babel  is  the  larger  and  lower  mound  called  the 
Kasr,  or  the  Fortress,  because  great  masses  of 
masonry  used  to  project  from  its  surface.  Deep 
down  in  the  mound  the  Germans  discovered  the 
palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar  with  its  hundreds  of 
small  chambers  and  its  huge  surrounding  walls. 

The  mound  still  farther  south  is  called  Amran, 
because  upon  its  summit  stands  the  tomb  of  a 
Mohammedan  saint  of  that  name.  There  lie  the 
ruins  of  the  famous  temple  of  Esagil,  sacred  to 
Marduk.  Upon  the  little  mound  Jumjuma  far- 
ther on,  an  Arab  village  has  long  stood. 

All  of  the  ancient  writers  agree  in  saying  that 
Babylon  was  surrounded  with  both  inner  and  outer 


72 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


walls,  and  the  ruins  confirm  their  statements. 
Parts  of  the  walls  of  Nineveh  are  still  standing  to 
the  height  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet, 
but  the  walls  of  Babylon  have  so  long  been  used 
to  supply  bricks  to  the  builders  of  the  neighbour- 
ing cities  that  only  their  bases  remain.  In  places 
even  the  bases  have  disappeared,  and  their  moats 
have  long  been  filled  with  the  drifting  sand. 

The  outer  wall  bore  the  name  of  Nimitti-Bel. 
Its  direction  was  north-east  and  south-west,  form- 
ing a triangle  with  the  river.  The  north-eastern 
section  may  now  be  traced  for  a distance  of  less 
than  three  miles,  and  the  south-western  for  more 
than  a mile,  but  both  sections  originally  reached 
the  river.  It  seems  that  the  circuit  of  the  outer 
wall  was  about  eleven  miles.  The  small  portions 
of  it  which  have  been  excavated  suffice  to  show 
its  construction.  The  moat,  ten  feet  deep,  and 
of  a width  no  longer  known,  ran  close  to  its  base. 
The  wall  was  double.  Its  outer  part  was  about 
twenty-four  feet  in  thickness,  and  its  foundations, 
as  Nebuchadnezzar  said,  were  carried  down  to  the 
water  level.  Its  bricks,  measuring  about  thirteen 
inches  square  and  three  inches  in  thickness,  were 
burned  and  stamped  with  the  usual  short  inscrip- 


Plan  of  the  Inner  and  Outer  Walls  of  Babylon 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


73 


tion:  “Nebuchadnezzar,  King  of  Babylon,  the 
restorer  of  the  temples  Esagil  and  Ezida,  the  first- 
born son  of  Nabopolassar,  King  of  Babylon.” 
They  were  laid  in  bitumen.  The  inner  part  of 
the  wall  was  constructed  of  unburned  bricks,  and 
at  a distance  of  about  thirty-six  feet  from  the 
outer  part.  The  intervening  space,  which  was 
filled  with  dirt  probably  to  the  upper  inner  edge 
of  the  outer  part,  served  as  an  elevated  road  where 
several  chariots  might  have  been  driven  abreast. 
This  inner  part  was  about  twenty-four  feet  wide, 
and  at  intervals  of  about  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet  it  was  surmounted  with  towers.  The  entire 
width  of  the  outer  defence,  not  including  the  moat, 
was  therefore  about  eighty-two  feet;  its  height 
was  probably  more  than  double  its  width,  but 
that  may  never  be  determined. 

The  inner  wall  of  Babylon  was  called  Imgur- 
Bel,  and  like  the  outer  wall,  it  was  double.  Time 
has  dealt  even  less  kindly  with  it,  for  it  may  be 
traced  only  for  the  distance  of  about  a mile  along 
its  eastern  side.  Nebuchadnezzar  says  that  he 
built  it  of  burned  bricks,  but  only  sun-dried  bricks 
laid  in  mud  now  appear.  Its  outer  part,  about 
twelve  feet  in  width,  was  protected  with  towers 


74 


THE  SEVEN  BONDERS 


at  intervals  of  sixty-five  feet.  A space  of  about 
twenty-three  feet  separated  it  from  its  inner  part, 
which  was  about  twenty  feet  in  width.  It  too 
was  surmounted  with  towers.  No  traces  of  its 
moat  have  appeared.  The  entire  width  of  this 
inner  defence  was  about  fifty-five  feet ; its  height 
is  uncertain.  To  protect  the  sun-dried  bricks  of 
the  inner  wall  from  the  winter  rains  there  were 
drains  of  large  burned  bricks,  some  of  which  bore 
the  following  long  inscription: 

Nebuchadnezzar,  King  of  Babylon,  the  exalted 
prince,  the  protector  of  Esagil  and  Ezida,  son  of 
Nabopolassar,  King  of  Babylon,  am  I.  Nabopolassar, 
the  father,  my  begetter,  built  Imgur-Bel,  the  great 
wall  of  Babylon,  but  I,  the  devout  petitioner,  the 
worshipper  of  the  gods,  built  the  moat,  and  made  its 
wall  of  burned  brick  and  bitumen  mountain  high. 
O Marduk,  great  god,  look  joyfully  upon  the  precious 
work  of  my  hands.  Be  thou  my  protector.  Grant 
me  as  a gift  a life  of  distant  days. 

The  outer  and  inner  defences  of  Babylon  were 
so  strong  and  so  high  that  no  enemy  could  hope 
to  take  them,  yet  the  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
was  protected  by  a third  defence  far  stronger. 
Fortunately  its  walls  have  suffered  less  from  the 


Cross-Section  of  the  Palace  Fortifications 


THE  WALLS  OF  BABYLON 


75 


hands  of  the  brick  hunters,  and  the  German  ex- 
cavators have  been  able  to  reconstruct  their  plan. 
They  may  best  be  described  by  means  of  the  ac- 
companying diagram  representing  a cross  section. 
Had  the  enemy  of  Babylon  succeeded  in  breaking 
through  the  outer  and  inner  defences  of  the  city 
the  royal  palace  would  have  still  been  far  from  his 
reach.  He  would  have  had  to  cross  a deep  moat, 
to  scale  a wall  of  burned  bricks  about  twenty  feet 
in  thickness  and  perhaps  three  times  as  high,  then 
a second  wall  still  higher,  a third  and  fourth  and 
a fifth,  each  stronger  and  higher  than  the  others, 
and  surmounted  with  towers,  and  then  finally  a 
sixth  wall  whose  summit  reached  into  the  sky  as 
far,  perhaps,  as  the  tallest  of  the  modern  buildings. 
Between  the  several  sections  were  wide  spaces 
where  foot  soldiers  and  charioteers  might  fight. 
It  must  have  been  an  imposing  sight  to  one  stand- 
ing without  to  have  seen  the  walls,  one  after 
another,  rising  higher  and  higher,  like  a great  ter- 
raced, turreted  mountain.  We  do  not  know  their 
height,  for  the  statements  of  the  ancient  writers 
disagree.  Herodotus  says  that  it  was  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  feet;  Ctesias  mentions  three 
hundred  feet;  probably  they  were  not  far  from 


76 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


the  truth.  The  ruins  reach  the  height  of  about 
forty  feet. 

Nor  were  the  walls  about  the  palace  a great  mass 
of  dull  brick  masonry.  The  Ishtar  gateway  lead- 
ing to  the  palace  was  encased  with  beautiful  blue 
glazed  bricks,  and  decorated  here  and  there  with 
large  reliefs  representing  bulls  and  lions  and  drag- 
ons, designed  in  colours  of  white  and  blue  and 
yellow  and  black.  It  seems  that  the  bricks  of 
the  reliefs  were  moulded  and  glazed  separately 
and  so  accurately  that  when  built  into  the  wall 
they  fitted  perfectly.  A modem  artist  would 
have  difficulty  in  doing  such  accurate  work.  Some 
of  these  decorations,  the  most  valuable  objects 
found  in  the  ruins  of  the  great  city,  still  remain 
in  their  places  on  the  walls;  others  have  been 
taken  to  the  Berlin  Museum.  Nebuchadnezzar 
speaks  of  great  bronze  gates  and  of  images  of 
bronze,  but  none  have  been  discovered.  Prob- 
ably their  metal  was  far  too  valuable  for  the  enemy 
to  leave  behind. 

Should  you  walk  along  the  shore  of  the  Eu- 
phrates at  Babylon,  you  would  still  see  the  em- 
bankments which  Nebuchadnezzar  constructed  of 
bricks  bearing  his  name,  but  the  river  walls  have 


The  Gateway  to  Nebuchadnezzar’s  Palace 


THE  W ALLS  OF  BABYLON 


77 


disappeared,  and  the  buttresses  of  the  bridges 
have  been  torn  or  washed  away.  Should  you 
cross  the  river  to  search  for  the  western  inner 
wall,  you  would  find  but  a small  fragment  of  it. 
The  great  outer  wall  seems  to  have  disappeared 
completely  beneath  the  desert  surface. 

Such  were  the  walls  of  Babylon,  the  strongest, 
the  thickest,  the  loftiest,  the  most  intricate,  per- 
haps the  most  beautiful  that  ever  protected  a city, 
walls  which  no  ancient  army  was  ever  able  to  take 
by  storm.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  they  were 
included  among  the  Seven  Wonders  of  the  World, 
or  that  the  Babylonian  soldier  stood  confidently 
upon  their  summit,  and  jeering  at  the  Persian 
army  encamped  below,  shouted : 

“Why  sit  ye  there,  Persians?  Why  do  ye  not 
go  back  to  your  homes?  Till  mules  foal  ye  will 
not  take  our  city.” 


Reliefs  on  the  Gateway  to  Nebuchadnezzar’s  Palace 


THE  THIRD  WONDER 


The  Statue  of  the  Olympian  Zeus 


79 


The  Euphrates  above  Babylon 


The  Statue  of  the  Olympian  Zeus 

NOT  far  from  the  year  500  B.C.,  in  the  Greek 
city  of  Athens,  lived  Charmides  and  his 
wife.  To  this  pair  of  ancient  Greeks 
was  born  a son  to  whom  the  name  of  Phidias,  or 
Pheidias,  was  given.  Not  another  word  does 
history  tell  us  of  the  father  and  mother  of  the 
greatest  sculptor  the  world  has  ever  known. 

Of  the  early  years  of  Phidias’s  life,  history  is 
almost  equally  silent.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  that 
when  he  was  a tiny  lad,  playing  in  the  street,  he 
drew  pictures  in  the  sand,  or  modelled  figures  of 
clay  to  the  delight  of  his  playmates.  Perhaps 
that  is  the  reason  why  his  father  decided  that  he 
should  become  an  artist,  or  perhaps  it  was  be- 
cause Charmides  himself  was  an  artist,  for  it  was 
the  custom  in  ancient  Greece  for  a child  to  follow 
the  trade  of  his  father.  However,  it  is  certain 
that  early  in  his  life  young  Phidias  gave  promise 

of  such  remarkable  skill  that  he  was  placed  in  the 
6 81 


82 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


charge  of  the  most  renowned  artists  of  all  Greece. 
Hegias  of  Athens,  Agelados  of  Argos,  and  Poly- 
gustus  were  the  teachers  who  did  the  most  to 
shape  his  career.  It  was  Phidias’s  first  ambition 
to  become  a painter,  but  we  do  not  know  to  what 
extent  that  ambition  was  gratified,  for  history  tells 
us  nothing  of  his  paintings.  Perhaps  it  was  be- 
cause he  showed  greater  promise  as  a sculptor 
that  his  teachers  directed  him  to  abandon  paint- 
ing and  to  confine  his  efforts  to  the  moulding  of 
clay,  or  to  the  shaping  of  marble  into  the  human 
form.  But  Phidias  was  not  satisfied  to  work  with 
the  marble  with  which  other  sculptors  delighted. 
The  cold  stone,  even  when  coloured  with  the  most 
natural  tints,  lacked  the  lifelike  expression  he 
would  give  to  his  statues.  Therefore  he  sought 
other  materials  that  he  might  reach  perfection 
in  his  art.  We  know  nothing  of  his  experiments  or 
disappointments.  The  skill  of  genius  is  seldom 
born ; it  comes  only  with  years  of  labour  and  effort 
and  discouragement,  or  even  with  failure.  We 
can  imagine  the  long,  hard  years  of  preparation 
which  finally  led  Phidias  to  success,  for  already 
he  was  well  advanced  in  life  before  he  charmed 
the  cultured  world  with  statues  in  a new  material, 


ST  A TUE  OF  THE  OL  YMPIAN  ZEUS  83 


and  so  lifelike  that  many  who  saw  them  actually 
believed  they  were  living  beings. 

Though  Phidias  worked  in  stone  and  bronze, 
he  was  the  first  to  employ  ivory  and  gold  to  re- 
present the  human  face  and  form.  Chryselephan- 
tine is  the  name  given  to  this  form  of  sculpture. 
No  material  so  closely  resembles  the  tint  and  the 
texture  of  the  flesh  as  ivory ; no  metal  could  better 
represent  the  clothing  and  the  hair  than  enamelled 
gold.  The  core  or  the  framework  of  his  statues 
was  of  wood,  which  he  overlaid  with  plates  of  ivory 
and  gold  so  skilfully  fitted  together  that  the  joints 
were  invisible.  It  seems  that  he  alone  was  able 
to  employ  the  ivory  and  gold  to  perfection,  or 
perhaps  no  states  but  those  of  ancient  Greece 
have  been  appreciative  enough  of  art  to  make 
large  appropriations  for  the  purchase  of  such 
costly  materials. 

It  is  sad,  and  strange  too,  that  among  all  the 
sculptures  inherited  from  the  ancient  world  there 
is  not  a single  fragment  which  we  can  positively 
say  came  from  the  hand  of  Phidias.  There  are 
many  statues  and  reliefs  which  may  have  been 
shaped  by  him  or  under  his  direction,  but  there 
is  always  a doubt  if  they  are  his.  It  is  only  from 


84 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


the  writings  of  the  ancients  that  we  know  of  his 
chief  works;  of  his  less  important  sculptures  no 
records  have  survived.  They  tell  us  of  his  bronze 
group  at  Delphi,  with  the  statues  of  Apollo  and 
Athena;  of  the  colossal  bronze  Athena  on  the 
Acropolis  at  Athens,  which  was  visible  to  the 
sailors  far  out  to  sea;  of  the  chryselephantine 
statue  of  Aphrodite  at  Elis.  One  of  his  statues  of 
Athena  was  at  Pellene,  another  was  at  Plataea; 
but  it  was  in  the  Parthenon  upon  the  Athenian 
Acropolis  that  his  chief  representation  of  the 
goddess  stood.  It  was  chryselephantine,  and  so 
wonderfully  wrought  that  it  shared  with  the 
Olympian  Zeus  in  establishing  his  fame. 

At  Athens  in  the  year  444  b.c.,  began  the  reign 
of  the  great  Pericles,  and  the  most  brilliant  period 
of  Greek  history  and  art.  Phidias  was  then  fully 
fifty  years  of  age,  and  though  he  had  not  yet  exe- 
cuted the  great  statues  for  which  he  was  later  re- 
nowned, he  had  acquired  a name  sufficient  to 
admit  him  to  the  circle  of  distinguished  authors 
and  artists  and  statesmen  who  frequented  the 
salon  of  Aspasia,  the  brilliant  wife  of  Pericles. 
To  adorn  Athens  with  artistic  buildings  and  statues 
was  one  of  the  ambitions  of  Pericles  and  Aspasia, 


An  Ancient  Copy  of  the  Athena  Parthenos 


STATUE  OF  THE  OLYMPIAN  ZEUS  85 


and  it  was  Phidias  whom  they  selected  to  carry 
out  their  plans.  In  full  charge  of  beautifying  the 
city,  and  with  the  wealth  of  the  Athenian  state  at 
his  disposal,  Phidias  gave  to  Greece  much  of  the 
glory  for  which  it  has  ever  been  famed.  The  Par- 
thenon was  already  nearing  completion,  but  the 
wonderful  sculptures  of  its  frieze  were  inspired  by 
him,  and  executed  by  his  pupils.  He  himself, 
however,  devoted  his  greatest  efforts  to  the  statue 
of  Athena  which  he  made  for  the  Parthenon. 
Two  small  crude  marble  copies  of  it  have  survived. 
They  represent  the  standing  helmeted  goddess 
with  a small  Victory  in  the  right  hand,  and  with  a 
large  circular  shield  resting  on  the  ground  at  her 
left.  The  core  of  the  statue  was  of  wood,  over- 
laid with  thin  plates  of  ivory  and  of  gold.  A 
copy  of  the  shield,  which  was  richly  engraved  with 
a battle  scene,  was  made  in  ancient  times,  and 
fortunately  a fragment  of  it,  found  upon  the 
Acropolis,  shows  the  wonderfully  fine  detail  of  the 
work. 

Many  a man  upon  whom  great  popular  favour 
has  been  showered,  has  found  that  with  the  favour 
have  come  enemies  to  deprive  him  of  it.  So  it  was 
with  Pericles  who  had  done  so  much  for  Athens, 


86 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


and  Phidias,  his  favourite,  was  destined  to  suffer 
with  him.  The  success  of  Phidias  had  brought 
him  rivals,  and  enemies  too,  and  when  the  down- 
fall of  Pericles  was  assured,  they  plotted  to  rob 
the  great  sculptor  of  his  fame.  The  government 
had  provided  for  the  statue  of  Athena  a large 
quantity  of  gold  of  which  the  present  value  would 
amount  to  about  $750,000.  The  enemies  of  Phi- 
dias accused  him  of  stealing  a part  of  the  gold  and 
of  secreting  it  for  himself,  and  it  seemed  that  there 
was  no  way  for  him  to  prove  his  innocence.  The 
shrewd  Pericles,  however,  had  advised  Phidias 
to  arrange  the  gold  plates  upon  the  statue  so  that 
they  might  be  removed  in  time  of  war  or  of  threat- 
ened invasion,  and,  to  the  amazement  of  his  ene- 
mies,  Phidias  removed  the  plates  and  had  them 
weighed.  None  of  the  gold  was  missing,  and  the 
charge  against  him  was  dismissed. 

But  the  enemies  of  Phidias  were  not  discouraged. 
Among  the  figures  in  the  battle  scene  engraved 
upon  the  shield  by  the  side  of  the  statue  of  Athena 
were  two  which  attracted  their  attention.  One 
was  of  a man  raising  a battle-axe,  concealing  half 
of  his  face  with  his  arm.  It  was  a likeness  of 
Pericles.  The  other  was  the  form  of  an  old  bald- 


From  the  Shield  of  the  Athena  Parthenos 


STATUE  OF  THE  OLYMPIAN  ZEUS  87 


headed  man  raising  a large  stone  in  the  act  of 
hurling  it  at  the  enemy.  It  was  a portrait  of 
Phidias.  Realism  in  the  religious  art  of  ancient 
Greece  was  contrary  to  custom,  and  the  ene- 
mies of  Phidias,  pretending  to  be  shocked  by  the 
appearance  of  the  portraits  in  so  sacred  a place, 
were  not  slow  in  accusing  him  of  sacrilege,  an  act 
worthy  of  the  greatest  punishment.  Phidias  was 
arrested  and  condemned.  One  tradition  says 
that  he  was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  died. 
Another  tradition,  perhaps  more  trustworthy, 
says  that  he  was  banished  from  Athens.  Misfor- 
tune is  frequently  the  stepping-stone  to  greater 
opportunities,  and  if  the  tradition  be  true,  the 
banishment  of  Phidias  resulted  in  bringing  to  him 
honours  far  greater  than  any  the  Athenians  had 
bestowed  upon  him,  and  in  giving  to  the  world  the 
wonderful  statue  of  the  Olympian  Zeus. 

In  the  western  part  of  the  Peloponnesus,  in  the 
old  kingdom  of  Elis,  is  a beautiful  narrow  valley 
through  which  the  river  Alpheus  flows.  It  was 
called  by  the  ancients  “The  Fairest  Spot  in 
Greece.”  Between  the  river  and  the  hill  sacred 
to  Chronos,  the  father  of  Zeus,  was  the  Greek 
centre  of  worship  even  in  prehistoric  times.  There 


88 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


later  the  city  of  Olympia  stood,  and  there,  too, 
about  iooo  b.c.,  was  built  the  temple  of  Hera,  the 
oldest  temple  in  all  Greece.  Its  ruins  still  lie  at  the 
base  of  the  sacred  hill.  Near  by  was  the  stadium 
where  the  Olympic  games  had  been  held  long  be- 
fore the  year  776  B.C.,  the  date  given  as  the  first 
Olympiad,  and  there  they  continued  for  more  than 
a thousand  years.  In  that  same  valley  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Greeks  continued  long  after  the 
rest  of  Greece  was  ruled  by  strangers.  Olympia 
was  the  most  sacred,  the  most  popular  city  in  all 
Greece;  perhaps  of  all  the  world.  About  the  year 
470  B.c.,  the  great  temple  of  Zeus  was  built  in  the 
very  centre  of  Olympia.  It  stood  upon  a sub- 
structure three  steps  high.  Thirty-six  tall  granite 
columns  surrounded  it,  and  the  three  parts  of  its 
interior  were  separated  by  similar  columns.  One 
of  its  friezes,  sculptured  by  the  best  Greek  artists, 
and  representing  the  chariot  race  of  (Enomaus 
and  Pelops,  contained  twenty-one  colossal  figures. 
The  temple  was  so  closely  associated  with  the 
Olympic  games  that  it  was  held  in  the  greatest 
reverence  by  the  Greeks  of  all  the  world.  Only 
to  the  eastern  of  the  three  sections  of  the  interior 
was  the  public  admitted;  in  the  central  section 


STATUE  OF  THE  OLYMPIAN  ZEUS  89 


the  victors  in  the  games  were  crowned  with  olive 
wreaths;  the  western  was  the  holy  of  holies  re- 
served for  the  statue  of  Zeus,  where  the  priests 
alone  might  enter.  The  people  were  permitted 
to  gaze  upon  the  face  of  the  deity  only  from  a 
distance  as  the  curtain  before  it  was  drawn  aside. 

It  was  just  as  the  great  temple  of  Zeus  was  near- 
ing completion  that  Phidias  fled  from  Athens,  and, 
accompanied  by  his  cousin,  or  his  brother,  Paneinos, 
the  painter,  and  by  some  of  his  pupils,  he  appeared 
at  Olympia.  Though  a refugee,  he  was  given  a 
hearty  welcome.  The  holy  of  holies  in  the  temple 
was  still  waiting  for  a statue  of  the  deity  to  adorn 
it,  for  though  sculptors  had  been  found  to  decorate 
the  temple  itself,  none  had  yet  been  chosen  to 
make  an  image  worthy  of  the  great  Zeus.  All  the 
world  knew  of  the  skill  and  the  fame  of  Phidias, 
and  at  once  he  was  commissioned  by  the  Elians  to 
make  the  statue.  Phidias  accepted  the  commis- 
sion. Perhaps  it  was  because  his  cruel  persecu- 
tion by  the  Athenians  was  fresh  in  his  mind  that 
he  determined  that  the  Olympian  statue  should 
surpass  in  every  respect  the  Athena  of  the  Par- 
thenon. Near  the  holy  grove  he  built  a workshop, 
and  in  its  centre  he  erected  an  altar  to  the  twelve 


90 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


great  gods  whom  he  invoked  each  morning  before 
he  began  the  work  of  the  day.  Gold,  silver,  ivory, 
precious  stones,  and  bronze  were  supplied  him  in 
abundance.  Carefully  he  constructed  the  wooden 
framework  of  the  statue,  strengthened  it  with 
iron  stays,  and  saturated  it  with  oil  to  prevent  it 
from  decay.  With  thin  sheets  of  ivory,  made 
pliable  by  fire,  and  carefully  joined  together,  he 
overlaid  the  wood  to  represent  the  flesh.  The 
eyes  were  the  choicest  of  gems.  The  mantle  of 
gold,  draped  over  the  left  shoulder  and  arm,  and 
all  studded  with  enamelled  flowers  and  small 
figures,  fell  in  graceful  folds  about  the  legs.  On 
the  head  was  a laurel  wreath  of  gold  enamelled 
green,  and  the  feet  were  shod  with  golden  sandals. 
Every  part  of  the  huge  throne  upon  which  the 
statue  was  seated  was  decorated  with  the  greatest 
care.  Its  arms  were  supported  with  sphinxes, 
each  holding  a youth  in  its  arms.  The  background 
of  its  front  was  painted  blue;  even  the  back  was 
adorned  with  the  three  Graces,  and  on  the  other 
sides  were  mystic  scenes  representing  the  struggles 
of  Hercules,  the  combats  of  Theseus  with  the 
Amazons,  and  the  family  of  Niobe.  The  foot- 
stool rested  on  lions,  and  it  too  was  engraved 


STATUE  OF  THE  OLYMPIAN  ZEUS  91 


with  the  combats  of  Theseus.  On  each  side 
of  the  feet  were  four  small  figures  of  which 
one  was  a diadumenos  winding  a fillet  about 
his  head. 

At  last,  after  two  Olympiads,  or  eight  long  years, 
of  labour,  the  statue  was  completed  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  great  artist.  The  platform  upon 
which  it  stood  in  the  holy  of  holies  measured 
nearly  twenty  feet  in  width  and  thirty  in  length, 
and  it,  too,  was  covered  with  metal  plates  richly 
engraved  with  mythological  scenes;  among  them 
were  Aphrodite  emerging  from  the  sea,  the  chariot 
of  Helios  rising  in  the  morning,  and  the  car  of 
Selene  descending  into  the  deep  at  night.  The 
roof  before  the  statue  was  open  to  the  sky  to  admit 
the  light,  according  to  the  custom  in  the  temples 
of  ancient  Greece,  but  above  the  statue  was  a 
covering  to  protect  it  from  the  rains.  We  do  not 
know  just  how  high  the  statue  was,  but  the  ancient 
authors  say  that  its  head  reached  the  roof  forty 
feet  above  the  foundation.  Before  it  was  sus- 
pended a beautifully  painted  curtain  to  secrete  it 
from  the  eyes  of  those  who  entered  the  first  two 
chambers  of  the  temple. 

The  great  work  of  Phidias  was  completed,  and 


92 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


an  inscription  was  engraved  upon  it  that  future 
generations  might  know  its  sculptor.  It  remained 
only  for  the  great  Zeus  to  give  some  sign  of  ap- 
proval of  the  statue  made  to  represent  him.  A 
tradition  says  that  in  a prayer  Phidias  asked  if  his 
work  was  acceptable,  and  immediately  in  reply  a 
bolt  of  lightning  flashed  down  through  the  open 
roof  to  the  pavement  before  the  statue.  Thus  Zeus 
spoke  to  express  his  pleasure,  and  for  centuries 
a beautiful  bronze  vase  stood  to  mark  the  place 
where  the  lightning  had  struck.  Nor  were  the 
people  of  Olympia,  or  the  throngs  of  visitors  who 
came  to  witness  the  games,  less  pleased.  The 
fame  of  Phidias  spread.  Worshippers  came  from 
far  and  near  to  see  the  wonderful  statue,  and  the 
authors  of  those  days  never  tired  of  describing  it. 
One  tells  us  that  “Phidias  alone  has  seen  the  like- 
ness of  the  gods,  or  he  alone  has  made  them 
visible.”  Another  said:  “No  one  who  has  seen 
Phidias’s  Zeus  can  imagine  any  other  semblance 
of  a god.”  A third  added:  “Those  who  enter  the 
temple  no  longer  think  that  they  see  ivory  from 
the  Indus,  or  beaten  gold  from  Thrace,  but  the  son 
of  Chronos  and  Rhea  transferred  to  earth  by 
Phidias.”  Perhaps  Dio  Chrysostom,  of  about 


STATUE  OF  THE  OL  YMPIAN  ZEUS  93 


100  a.d.,  paid  the  highest  tribute  to  the  great 
sculptor.  He  said : 

Were  any  so  heavily  burdened  with  cares  and  af- 
flicted with  sorrows  that  even  sweet  sleep  would  not 
refresh  him,  standing  before  the  statue,  he  would,  I 
firmly  believe,  forget  all  that  was  fearful  and  crushing 
in  life,  so  wonderfully,  hast  thou,  0 Phidias,  conceived 
and  completed  thy  work,  such  heavenly  light  and 
grace  is  in  thy  art. 

For  centuries  after  the  statue  was  completed 
it  was  considered  a calamity  to  die  without  having 
seen  it,  for  so  lifelike  did  it  seem  that  the  common 
people  thought  it  to  be  a real  living  god.  Even 
in  the  time  of  Hadrian  a picture  of  it  was  stamped 
on  the  coins. 

Of  the  life  of  Phidias,  after  he  completed  the 
statue,  history  tells  us  nothing.  One  tradition — 
but  apparently  it  is  without  foundation — says  that 
his  troubles  at  Athens  were  repeated  at  Olympia, 
that  he  was  accused  of  stealing  the  gold  which  the 
government  had  furnished  him,  and  was  con- 
demned to  prison,  where  he  died.  Some  believe 
that  he  completed  the  Olympian  statue  even  before 
he  made  the  Athena  of  the  Parthenon,  and  that  his 
life  was  ended  in  an  Athenian  prison.  However, 


94 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


it  seems  that  in  Olympia  his  name  was  always 
honoured,  for  his  descendants,  of  whom  we  know 
next  to  nothing,  were  employed  by  the  state  to 
care  for  the  statue. 

Fortunately  we  can  follow  the  history  of  the 
statue  for  nearly  a thousand  years,  until  the  time 
when  Zeus  had  become  a myth  of  the  ancients. 
Sixty  years  after  it  was  completed,  cracks  appeared 
in  its  ivory  plates,  and  Damophon  of  Messene 
was  employed  to  repair  them.  Somewhat  later, 
in  some  mysterious  manner,  two  of  its  great  gold 
locks  were  stolen.  In  Caesar’s  time  it  was  struck 
by  lightning  but  no  serious  damage  seems  to  have 
resulted.  The  Emperor  Caligula  conceived  the 
idea  of  transporting  it  to  Rome,  and  of  perpetuat- 
ing his  glory  by  substituting  his  own  face  for  that 
of  the  god.  The  story  says  that  when  the  work- 
men laid  their  hands  upon  the  statue  to  remove  it, 
a great  peal  of  laughter  burst  from  the  lips  of 
Zeus,  and  they  fled  in  terror;  that  the  ship  that 
was  waiting  in  the  nearest  harbour  to  carry  it 
away  was  struck  by  lightning  and  was  burned. 
In  393  a.d.,  the  Olympic  games  ceased,  and  the 
city  rapidly  declined.  In  408,  during  the  reign 
of  Theodosius  II.,  the  temple  was  burned;  possibly 


ST  A TUE  OF  THE  OL  YMPIAN  ZEUS  95 


the  statue  was  burned  with  it,  or,  if  it  survived, 
it  was  broken  up  and  carried  away.  Another 
story  says  that  in  the  year  390  Theodosius  I.  took 
it  to  Constantinople,  where  it  perished  in  the  fire 
of  the  year  of  416.  The  same  story,  however,  is 
related  of  the  Athena  of  the  Parthenon,  and  in  later 
ages  the  two  statues  were  frequently  confused. 

Though  the  temple  had  been  burned  by  the 
plundering  Goths,  its  walls  continued  to  stand 
and  they  were  converted  into  a Christian  fortress, 
but  a century  later  an  earthquake  cast  them  down. 
Gradually  the  waters  of  the  river  Alpheus  over- 
flowed the  ruins,  burying  them  in  the  silt  from  the 
neighbouring  hills.  In  time  the  city  was  forgotten, 
and  so  it  remained  during  the  long  centuries  of  the 
dark  Middle  Ages,  even  to  our  own  day. 

In  the  year  1875  the  Germans  began  the  excava- 
tions of  Olympia  and  continued  their  work  until 
the  March  of  1881.  The  entire  site  of  the  old  city 
was  buried  to  the  depth  of  sixteen  feet.  Down 
beneath  the  silt  near  the  base  of  the  sacred  Chro- 
nion  was  the  stadium  where  the  famous  games 
were  held;  near  by  was  the  foundation  of  the  old 
temple  of  Hera ; among  the  ruins  of  the  houses  was 
the  home  of  Nero  when  he  was  a contestant  in 


96 


THE  SEVEN  BONDERS 


the  games.  In  a great  confusing  mass  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  ruined  city  lay  the  fallen  columns  and 
the  sculptures  of  the  famous  temple.  It  was  a 
laborious  task  to  uncover  them,  but  one  after 
another  those  ancient  treasures  were  rescued;  the 
temple  foundation  was  uncovered;  the  holy  of 
holies  where  the  statue  stood  was  cleared,  and 
though  its  platform  had  been  taken  away,  one 
might  clearly  see  where  it  had  been.  In  the  pave- 
ment is  a little  hole,  perhaps  the  very  hole  which 
the  temple  priests  used  to  point  out  whenever 
they  told  the  story  of  how  Zeus  spoke  to  Phidias 
through  the  lightning  flash. 

When  now  you  visit  the  site  of  this  famous  old 
Greek  city  you  see  only  a mass  of  foundation  walls 
nearly  hidden  among  the  overgrowing  bushes. 
In  the  stadium  you  find  the  marble  slabs  which 
marked  the  starting  point  of  the  Olympic  runners. 
You  trace  the  narrow  streets  among  the  homes. 
You  stand  amazed,  looking  at  the  huge  fallen 
columns  of  the  great  temple.  You  enter  the  holy 
of  holies  where  in  the  early  days  none  but  the 
feet  of  a priest  trod.  Upon  the  little  hill  over- 
looking the  ruins,  close  by  the  hotel,  you  find  a low 
white  building.  It  is  the  museum  where  nearly 


ST  A TUE  OF  THE  OL  YMPIAN  ZEUS  97 


all  that  remain  of  the  sculptured  treasures  are 
stored.  There  you  see  Pelops  with  Hippodamia 
at  his  side.  There  are  the  Labours  of  Hercules, 
the  wonderful  Hermes  by  Praxiteles,  and  the  battle 
of  the  Centaurs,  but  there  remains  not  one  small 
fragment  of  Phidias’s  great  masterpiece,  the  statue 
of  Zeus,  the  wonder  of  all  the  ancient  world. 


THE  FOURTH  WONDER 
The  Temple  of  Diana 


99 


The  Temple  of  Diana 


THE  Greeks  used  to  say  that  Artemis  was 
the  daughter  of  Zeus  and  Leto,  and  the 
twin  sister  of  Apollo;  that  she  was  born 
on  the  sixth  day  of  the  month  in  a grove  in  Ortygia; 
that  she  was  the  goddess  of  the  chase,  and  so  they 
represented  her  with  a bow  and  arrows,  and  with 
an  animal  at  her  side. 

The  Romans  called  her  Diana.  To  them  she 
was  the  goddess  of  childbirth,  and  the  mothers  of 
the  newly-born  babes  used  to  offer  their  clothing 
to  her.  In  later  ages  she  was  pictured  as  seated  on 
the  crescent  moon. 

Some  called  her  Artemis  Brauronia.  They 
thought  that  she  appeared  to  men  only  in  the 
form  of  a bear  roaming  wild  about  the  fields. 
Primitive  man  has  always  believed  that  some  of 
the  animals  are  superhuman.  That  is  why  the 
ancient  Egyptians  used  to  keep  a sacred  bull  in 
the  temple,  or  the  Romans  watched  the  flights 
of  birds,  or  the  American  Indian  has  his  snake 

IOI 


102 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


dance.  When  the  bear-goddess  was  displeased 
or  hungry,  she  attacked  men  and  killed  them.  To 
appease  her  wrath,  a human  sacrifice  was  offered 
to  her,  and  with  the  sacrifice  she  was  pleased,  for 
her  hunger  was  satisfied.  At  the  sacrificial  cere- 
mony little  girls,  dressed  in  bear  skins,  used  to 
dance  about  the  bear,  and  then  one  of  them  was 
given  to  the  beast.  Once  there  was  a man  who 
had  a goat,  and  he  called  the  goat  his  daughter. 
When  it  came  time  to  sacrifice  another  girl  to  the 
bear-goddess,  he  offered  the  goat-daughter  in  her 
place.  The  bear-goddess  seemed  satisfied,  and 
so  human  sacrifices  ceased.  An  image  of  a bear 
made  to  represent  the  goddess  has  been  found 
upon  the  Acropolis  at  Athens. 

Some  say  that  the  gods  we  worship  are  only  the 
creation  of  our  own  minds.  They  are  bom  with 
us,  and  they  develop  as  we  develop.  They  possess 
the  forms  and  the  characteristics  which  we  think 
our  gods  should  possess.  Perhaps  the  goddess 
Artemis  was  at  first  a bear,  and  when  in  time  she 
assumed  the  human  form,  she  became  the  goddess 
of  the  chase,  or  of  agriculture,  or  of  sailors,  or  of 
childbirth,  or  of  the  moon.  So  Artemis,  or  Diana, 
had  many  births  and  many  names  and  many  differ- 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


103 


ent  duties  to  perform  in  the  many  lands  where  she 
was  worshipped. 

There  were  some  who  said  that  in  very  early 
days  a wooden  statue  of  a goddess  fell  from  heaven 
into  a thicket,  and  that  vines,  twining  about  it, 
held  it  upright ; that  men  found  the  goddess  stand- 
ing in  the  thicket  and  began  to  worship  her.  Some 
say  that  the  goddess  was  Artemis,  and  that  the 
place  where  she  fell  was  in  Greece.  Others  say 
that  she  was  Cybele,  the  Asiatic  Mother  Goddess 
of  the  Earth,  who  was  worshipped  especially  by 
the  female  warriors,  the  Amazons.  The  place 
where  she  fell  was  near  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor, 
where  the  River  Cayster  empties  into  the  sea. 
Her  statue,  so  later  pictures  of  it  inform  us,  was 
of  wood.  Upon  the  head  was  a mural  headdress 
to  represent  the  wall  of  a city.  The  upper  part 
of  the  body  was  entirely  covered  with  breasts, 
for  she  was  the  mother  of  all  the  earth.  The  lower 
part  of  her  body  terminated  with  a pillar  all  carved 
with  the  figures  of  animals,  or  perhaps  wrapped 
about  with  an  embroidered  cloth.  The  thicket 
where  the  statue  fell  was  transformed  to  a grove. 
In  the  grove  was  an  aged  cedar  tree,  perhaps  more 
venerated  than  the  others  about  it,  and  in  its  great 


THE  SEVEN  IVONDERS 


ic4 


hollow  trunk  the  statue  was  placed.  The  hollow 
cedar  tree  was  the  first  temple  of  the  goddess. 

Not  far  from  the  grove  where  the  sacred  temple 
tree  used  to  stand,  was  a little  valley  lying  be- 
tween the  hills  Prion  and  Coressus.  Tradition 
tells  us  that  long  before  the  days  of  Homer,  a 
migrating  band  of  Amazons  settled  in  the  valley. 
Perhaps  those  women  warriors  built  a city  there, 
and  were  later  driven  away  by  the  Carians  and 
Pelasgians.  About  noo  B.c.,  Androclus,  son  of 
Codrus,  King  of  Athens,  arrived  in  the  valley  with 
a party  of  Greeks  from  Ionia,  and  then  begins  the 
story  of  the  Greek  city  of  Ephesus.  The  story 
is  long  and  eventful,  for  the  city,  lying  by  a good 
harbour  at  the  entrance  to  Asia  Minor,  became 
the  centre  of  trade  and  wealth  and  culture,  and 
more  than  that,  it  was  the  great  religious  centre 
of  all  the  Orient. 

The  religious  history  of  the  city  may  have  begun 
with  the  Amazons  who  worshipped  the  Oriental 
Cybele,  for  when  the  Greeks  came  to  Ephesus  she 
was  the  local  goddess  of  the  place.  They  seem 
to  have  associated  her  or  confused  her  with  their 
own  Artemis  or  Diana,  and  so  the  great  Diana  of 
Ephesus  was  the  composite  offspring  of  both 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


105 


Greek  and  Oriental  deities.  How  long  the  goddess 
was  contented  to  live  in  the  hollow  cedar  tree, 
history  does  not  tell  us.  Perhaps  the  old  tree 
was  blown  down  by  the  wind,  or  perhaps,  as  the 
fame  of  the  goddess  increased,  she  desired  a more 
stately  residence,  for  in  the  eighth  century  B.c. 
a platform  of  greenish  stone  was  built  about  the 
place  where  the  tree  had  stood,  and  upon  the  plat- 
form her  statue  and  an  altar  were  placed.  A stone 
wall  was  then  built  about  the  platform,  but  the 
goddess  still  stood  beneath  the  open  sky.  This 
was  her  second  temple,  but  her  first  one  of  stone, 
and  to  it  the  worshippers  brought  gifts  of  metal 
and  ivory  and  bone  and  crystal  and  paste  and 
glass  and  clay.  Some  of  these  early  gifts  to  the 
goddess  are  now  carefully  preserved  in  the  British 
Museum. 

The  fame  of  the  goddess  spread,  for  she  seemed 
to  bring  prosperity  to  all  who  worshipped  her. 
By  the  year  650  she  had  outgrown  her  little  shrine, 
and  it  was  enlarged  and  placed  at  a higher  level, 
but  her  statue  continued  to  stand  in  the  very  same 
place.  This  was  her  third  temple. 

Diana  had  scarcely  entered  her  new  abode  when 
it  happened  that  hordes  of  the  wild  Cimmerians 


io6 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


overran  the  country  and  burned  the  temple,  yet 
they  spared  Ephesus.  The  people  said  that  Diana 
had  saved  the  city,  and  therefore  at  once  a fourth 
temple,  larger  and  on  a higher  foundation,  was 
built  to  the  protecting  goddess.  It  was  of  a 
Greek  type,  surrounded  with  columns,  but  we 
know  little  of  its  details.  Chersiphon  and  his 
son  Metagenes  of  Cnossus  were  its  architects. 

The  increasing  fame  of  the  goddess  brought 
larger  and  larger  numbers  of  pilgrims  from  afar 
to  worship  at  her  shrine,  and  they  carried  back 
to  their  homes  wonderful  tales  of  her  power.  Her 
gifts  increased,  and  even  the  new  temple  was 
scarcely  large  enough  to  contain  them.  A still 
greater  temple  was  required,  and  it  was  decided 
that  all  the  people  should  have  a part  in  building 
it.  From  560  to  546,  Croesus,  the  wealthiest  man 
of  the  ancient  world,  was  the  King  of  Lydia,  and 
Ephesus,  then  a mighty  city,  fell  into  his  hands. 
Croesus  had  been  told  that  his  riches  and  power 
were  so  great  that  they  might  arouse  even  the 
jealousy  of  the  gods,  and  to  prevent  such  a calam- 
ity he  contributed  liberally  to  the  building  fund 
of  the  new  temple.  History  does  not  tell  us  the 
amount  of  his  gift,  but  it  was  so  large  that  he  was 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


io  7 


regarded  as  its  builder.  Thus  the  fifth  temple  of 
Diana  came  into  existence.  It  stood  in  the  same 
place  where  all  of  the  earlier  temples  had  stood, 
but  at  a higher  level ; it  was  so  large  that  its  cella 
alone  covered  all  the  space  which  they  had  occu- 
pied, yet  the  statue  still  marked  the  place  where 
the  old  cedar  tree  had  stood.  Paeonius  of  Ephesus 
and  Demetrius,  a priest  of  the  temple,  were  its 
architects.  Its  stone  was  the  white  marble  from 
the  hills  seven  miles  away.  Its  main  foundation 
was  360  feet  in  length  and  180  in  width;  its  entire 
ground  plan  covered  an  area  of  80,000  square  feet. 
Its  more  than  a hundred  marble  columns  sur- 
rounding the  cella  in  double  rows  were  of  the  best 
Ionic  order;  but  we  do  not  know  their  height.  Its 
walls  bore  sculptures  by  the  best  artists.  We  are  told 
that  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  passed  before 
it  was  completed,  but  at  last,  sometime  between 
430  and  420  B.C.,  it  was  dedicated.  Then  there 
was  rejoicing  in  Ephesus ; people  from  all  the  world 
gathered  to  witness  the  games  and  to  hear  the 
orators  and  the  poets.  Timotheus  won  the  prize 
for  his  lyric  ode.  The  smoke  from  the  temple 
altar  now  rose  in  greater  volume  than  ever;  gifts 
came  in  far  greater  abundance,  and  Diana  was 


io8 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


acknowledged  to  be  the  chief  goddess  of  all  the 
world. 

A story  is  told  that  in  the  year  395  an  attempt 
was  made  to  burn  the  temple ; perhaps  it  was  partly 
burned  and  restored  again.  However,  later  there 
lived  at  Ephesus  a Greek  named  Herostratus  who 
desired  to  perform  some  deed  which  would  cause 
his  name  to  be  handed  down  through  all  the  ages, 
and  so  on  a night  in  October,  356,  the  very  night 
when  Alexander  the  Great  was  born,  he  burned 
the  temple  to  the  ground.  Herostratus  won  the 
eternal  fame  he  coveted,  but  he  is  known  only  for 
this  one  act — the  greatest  crime  of  which  he  could 
conceive.  According  to  Hegesias,  a Greek  writer 
of  about  300,  Herostratus  chose  a convenient 
time  for  burning  the  temple.  That  night  the 
goddess  Diana  was  absent ; she  had  gone  to  Mace- 
donia to  assist  at  the  birth  of  Alexander. 

The  crime  of  Herostratus  was  so  enormous  that 
his  name  was  erased  from  the  public  records,  yet 
indirectly  it  resulted  in  great  good  to  the  goddess, 
to  the  city,  and  to  all  the  world.  A new  temple 
arose,  larger,  loftier,  richer,  more  magnificent; 
it  was  the  great  temple  of  Diana,  which  was  the 
wonder  of  the  world.  Work  on  the  new  temple 


Reconstruction  of  the  Temple  of  Diana 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


109 


was  begun  about  the  year  350,  and  though  Pliny 
says  that  a hundred  and  twenty  years  were  re- 
quired for  its  construction,  it  seems  to  have  been 
completed  in  a third  of  that  time.  In  334,  when 
Alexander  came  to  Ephesus,  he  offered  to  defray 
the  cost  of  its  completion  if  he  might  be  permitted 
to  dedicate  it  in  his  own  name  to  the  goddess. 
The  Ephesians,  unwilling  that  such  great  honour 
should  be  given  to  the  Macedonian,  and  yet  fear- 
ing to  displease  him,  replied:  “It  is  not  fitting 
that  one  god  should  build  a temple  to  another  god.  ” 
Though  the  aid  of  Alexander  was  refused,  Dinoc- 
rates, his  favourite  architect,  who  planned  the 
city  of  Alexandria,  supervised  its  construction. 
Pliny,  however,  says  that  Chersiphron  was  the 
architect.  The  new  temple  stood  on  the  site  of  all 
the  others.  Its  foundation,  enlarged  to  418  feet  in 
length  and  239  in  width,  was  built  up  with  great 
blocks  of  stone  seven  feet  above  the  older  temples, 
and  ten  stone  steps  led  to  its  surface.  Upon  the 
foundation  was  the  temple  platform  nine  and  a 
half  feet  higher;  it  was  reached  by  fourteen  steps. 
The  temple  itself  was  342  feet  long  and  164  feet 
in  width.  One  hundred  and  twenty-seven  great 
stone  columns,  six  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base 


no 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


and  more  than  sixty  feet  tall,  supported  the  roof. 
The  columns  were  about  seventeen  feet  apart,  and 
a row  of  eight  of  them  extended  along  the  front. 
Thirty-six  of  the  columns,  some  square  and  others 
round,  were  donated  by  the  kings  of  different 
countries,  and  were  sculptured  in  relief  from  the 
base  to  the  height  of  twenty  feet.  Above  the 
sculptures  they  were  fluted.  The  great  cella  was 
partly  open  to  the  sky,  and  the  roof  about  the 
opening  was  covered  with  large  white  marble  tiles. 
The  friezes  were  sculptured  by  the  greatest  artists, 
but  unfortunately  we  know  little  of  them.  Before 
the  temple  entrance  stood  the  great  image  of  the 
goddess,  probably  a large  reproduction  of  the 
wooden  statue  which  long  before  fell  from  heaven. 

Such  was  the  outer  appearance  of  the  temple. 
In  most  respects  it  resembled  the  Greek  temples 
of  that  age.  It  was  not  alone  its  size,  nor  its 
sculptured  decorations,  which  gave  it  a place  among 
the  seven  wonders.  The  elaborate  service,  the 
wealth,  the  varied  business  interests  it  controlled, 
the  wide  influence  it  exerted,  all  united  in  adding 
to  its  fame. 

Though  several  of  the  ancient  writers  have 
written  of  the  temple,  Pliny,  who  saw  it  only  after 


A Drum  from  a Column  of  the  Temple  of  Diana 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


hi 


it  had  been  standing  four  hundred  years,  has  given 
us  one  of  the  fullest  accounts.  He  says : 

The  most  wonderful  monument  of  Grecian  influ- 
ence, and  one  that  merits  our  genuine  admiration, 
is  the  temple  of  the  Diana'of  Ephesus,  which  took  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years  in  building,  a work  in 
which  all  Asia  joined.  A marshy  soil  was  selected 
for  its  site,  in  order  that  it  might  not  suffer  from 
earthquakes,  or  the  chasms  which  they  produce. 
On  the  other  hand,  again,  that  the  foundations  of  so 
vast  a pile  might  not  have  to  rest  upon  a loose  and 
shifting  bed,  layers  of  trodden  charcoal  were  placed 
beneath,  with  fleeces  covered  with  wool  upon  the  top 
of  them.  The  entire  length  of  the  temple  is  425  feet, 
and  the  breadth  225.  The  columns  are  127  in  num- 
ber and  sixty  feet  in  height,  each  of  them  presented 
by  different  kings.  Thirty-six  of  these  columns  are 
carved,  and  one  of  them  by  the  hands  of  Seopas. 
Chersiphron  was  the  architect  who  presided  over  the 
work. 

The  great  marvel  of  this  building  is,  how  such  pon- 
derous architraves  could  possibly  have  been  raised 
to  so  great  a height.  This,  however,  the  architect 
effected  by  means  of  bags  filled  with  sand,  which  he 
piled  up  upon  an  inclined  plain  until  they  reached  be- 
yond the  capitals  of  the  columns ; then  as  he  gradually 
emptied  the  lower  bags,  the  architraves  insensibly 
settled  in  the  places  assigned  them.  But  the  greatest 
difficulty  of  all  was  found  in  laying  the  lintel  which 
he  placed  over  the  entrance  doors.  It  was  an  enor- 


1 12 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


mous  mass  of  stone,  and  by  no  possibility  could  it 
be  brought  to  lie  level  upon  the  jambs  which  formed 
its  bed;  in  consequence  of  which,  the  architect  was 
driven  to  such  a state  of  anxiety  and  desperation  as 
to  commit  suicide.  Wearied  and  quite  worn  out 
with  such  thoughts  as  these,  during  the  night,  they 
say,  he  beheld  in  a dream  the  goddess  in  honour  of 
whom  the  temple  was  being  erected;  who  exhorted 
him  to  live  on,  for  that  she  herself  had  placed  the 
stone  in  its  proper  position.  And  such,  in  fact,  next 
morning,  was  found  to  be  the  case,  the  stone  appar- 
ently having  come  to  the  proper  level  by  dint  of  its 
own  weight.  The  other  decorations  of  this  work 
would  suffice  to  fill  many  volumes,  but  they  do  not 
tend  in  any  way  to  illustrate  the  works  of  nature. 
(Pliny,  xxxvi.,  21.) 

Diana  of  Ephesus,  as  we  have  seen,  was  partly 
Asiatic  and  partly  European  in  origin;  her  temple 
service  was  Asiatic  rather  than  Greek.  Neither 
the  priests  not  the  priestesses  were  permitted  to 
marry.  At  the  head  of  the  temple  staff  was  an 
official  who  bore  the  Persian  title  of  Megabyzus; 
the  Greeks  called  him  the  Neocorus.  Just  how  he 
attained  his  office,  we  do  not  know,  but  probably 
he  was  appointed  by  the  state.  A little  ivory 
statue  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  temple  a few  years 
ago  is  supposed  to  represent  him.  The  priests 
were  graded  according  to  the  services  they  ren- 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


113 


dered.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  Theologi  to  give 
instruction  in  the  religious  rites  and  sacred  legends. 
The  Hymnodi  composed  the  temple  songs  and 
conducted  the  musical  ceremonies.  Responsive 
hymns  always  formed  a prominent  part  in  the 
temple  ritual,  and  during  the  processions  when  the 
statues  of  the  goddess  were  taken  about  the  city, 
the  marching  was  accompanied  with  weird  chants. 
The  Hieroi,  who  must  have  been  by  far  the  largest 
class  of  the  priests,  performed  the  manual  work 
about  the  temple. 

As  the  goddess  Diana  was  connected  at  least 
in  legend  with  the  Amazons,  priestesses  naturally 
played  a prominent  part  in  her  worship.  They 
were  known  as  the  Parthenoi,  or  the  Un wedded, 
or  more  popularly  as  the  Melissse,  or  Bees,  perhaps 
because  of  their  great  activity  in  the  temple 
service.  That  is  perhaps  why  the  form  of  a bee 
is  stamped  upon  the  coins  of  the  city.  They  also 
were  divided  into  classes,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
say  just  what  their  duties  were. 

Indirectly  connected  with  the  temple  staff  was 
a host  of  silversmiths  who  manufactured  small 
images  of  the  temple  and  of  the  goddess,  sometimes 
of  silver  but  more  frequently  of  clay,  to  sell  to  the 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


114 


visiting  pilgrims.  The  pilgrims  purchased  them 
to  present  as  votive  offerings  to  the  goddess,  or 
sometimes  to  take  as  souvenirs  to  their  distant 
homes.  Thus  a part  of  the  temple  income  was 
derived. 

The  temple  ceremonies  were  also  Oriental  in 
their  character.  The  best  of  the  offerings  of 
animals  and  grains  and  fruits,  as  in  the  temples 
of  old  Babylonia,  were  consumed  by  the  priests 
rather  than  burned  upon  the  altar  to  the  goddess. 
As  in  old  Babylonia,  too,  once  each  year  the 
statues  of  the  goddess  were  taken  about  the  city. 
The  procession  took  place  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
May,  the  day  when  the  statue  of  the  goddess  is 
said  to  have  fallen  from  heaven.  There  were  hosts 
of  statues,  great  and  small,  of  wood  and  clay  and 
stone  and  silver  and  gold.  We  are  told  of  one 
man,  Caius  Vibius  Salutaris,  who  presented  the 
temple  with  many  images  of  gold  and  silver  weigh- 
ing several  pounds  each,  and  with  money  equiva- 
lent to  four  thousand  dollars  invested  at  nine  per 
cent,  interest.  The  income  of  this  endowment, 
which  amounted  to  $360  a year,  a very  large  sum 
for  those  days,  was  intended  for  the  care  of  the 
images,  and  for  their  transportation  in  the  pro- 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


ii5 


cession.  The  temple  stood  some  over  a mile  from 
the  city,  but  connected  with  it  by  a great  highway 
thirty-five  feet  in  width,  and  paved  with  marble 
blocks.  Damianus,  a wealthy  Roman,  built  over 
this  Via  Sacra  an  arched  stone  stoa  to  protect  the 
priests  and  the  statues  from  the  rain  and  the  sun. 
The  procession,  with  long  lines  of  priests  marching 
to  the  accompaniment  of  the  weird  music,  and 
perhaps  with  the  dancing  priestesses,  and  with 
chariots  laden  with  the  statues,  entered  the  city 
by  the  Magnesian  gate.  Before  the  great  theatre 
it  halted.  The  images  were  carried  to  the  stage 
where  the  audience,  which  might  have  numbered 
more  than  fifty  thousand,  could  see  them.  When 
the  ceremonies,  whatever  they  were,  were  com- 
pleted, the  procession  passed  through  the  princi- 
pal streets  and  out  by  the  Coressian  gate  and  back 
to  the  temple. 

Pilgrims  flocked  to  Ephesus  from  all  parts  of 
the  world,  from  Europe  and  Asia  and  Africa,  vying 
with  each  other  in  the  costliness  of  their  gifts. 
There  were  treasures  of  gold  and  silver  and  ivory 
and  rich  embroideries.  Sculptors  and  artists  de- 
voted their  best  works  to  the  goddess,  and  among 
the  objects  most  highly  treasured  were  the  statues 


1 16  THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


of  the  Amazons  which  Phidias  made  in  competi- 
tion with  other  artists,  and  a painting  of  Alexander 
by  Apelles.  In  time  the  temple  became  a great 
museum,  perhaps  the  first  great  museum  in  the 
world’s  history. 

Naturally  the  usual  and  the  more  acceptable 
gifts  were  of  money,  and  the  wealth  of  the  temple 
became  prodigious.  To  care  for  the  money  and  to 
invest  it  properly,  there  were  expert  financiers  in 
the  priesthood.  Vast  business  enterprises  were 
carried  on;  large  tracts  of  land  were  purchased 
and  cultivated ; mines  were  developed ; estates  were 
administered ; fisheries  were  controlled ; the  temple 
ships  traded  with  all  the  world.  The  temple 
loaned  money  to  those  who  required  it,  or  borrowed 
it  from  those  who  had  it  to  loan,  and  deposited 
for  safe  keeping  treasures  of  every  kind.  At  one 
time  the  temple  controlled  the  greater  part  of  the 
wealth  of  the  Orient.  It  was  to  the  ancient  world 
all  that  the  Bank  of  England  is  to  the  modern 
world,  and  more. 

The  temple  was  also  an  asylum,  a place  of  refuge 
for  the  fugitive  or  the  criminal.  Perhaps  in  the 
early  times  the  right  of  asylum  was  confined  to  the 
temple  itself,  and  most  temples  were  and  are  still 


The  Magnesian  Gate 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


117 


places  of  refuge.  Later  the  boundaries  of  the 
asylum  were  extended.  When  the  great  Mithri- 
dates  possessed  the  city  he  sought  popularity  by 
enlarging  them  to  the  distance  of  a bow  shot 
from  the  temple.  Still  later,  when  Mark  Antony 
extended  them  to  include  a part  of  the  city  more 
than  a mile  away,  the  city  became  a haunt  for 
criminals  of  all  sorts.  Augustus  confined  the 
sacred  space  to  within  a quarter  of  a mile  of  the 
temple,  and  surrounded  it  with  a wall,  traces  of 
which  may  still  be  seen.  Strabo  speaks  of  the 
asylum  in  the  following  words : 

The  temple  has  the  right  of  sanctuary  to  the  present 
day,  but  the  boundaries  of  the  sanctuary  have  varied 
at  different  times.  Alexander  extended  them  to  a 
stadium  [600  feet].  Mithridates  shot  an  arrow  from 
the  roof  and  is  said  to  have  shot  it  a little  beyond  a 
stadium.  Antony  doubled  the  distance  and  thus 
included  within  the  right  of  sanctuary  a certain  por- 
tion of  the  city;  but  this  ordinance  put  the  city  at 
the  mercy  of  the  malefactors,  so  that  Caesar  Augustus 
cancelled  it. 

During  all  the  centuries  that  the  temple  stood, 
Asia  Minor  was  the  scene  of  many  wars.  Kings 
of  the  neighbouring  states  fought  for  it,  won  it, 
and  lost  it  again.  Its  cities  were  frequently 


n8  THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


destroyed,  and  their  people  massacred,  but  Ephe- 
sus and  the  temple  almost  alone  escaped.  It  was 
the  belief  among  the  common  people  that  Diana 
protected  the  city,  and  that  may  well  be  true  for 
she  was  revered  even  by  the  enemies  of  the  state. 
When  the  wealthy  Croesus  was  besieging  Ephesus, 
and  the  city  seemed  about  to  fall,  the  priests 
stretched  a rope  from  the  temple  about  it  to  indi- 
cate that  it  was  sacred  ground.  Croesus  aban- 
doned the  siege,  and  became  a faithful  follower 
of  the  goddess.  Ephesus  next  fell  to  the  kings  of 
Persia,  and  though  Xerxes  destroyed  other  shrines, 
he  showed  great  honour  to  Diana  by  leaving  his 
own  children  in  her  charge  for  safety.  With  the 
defeat  of  the  Persians  Ephesus  became  tributary 
to  Athens,  and  then  again  it  was  Persian.  Alex- 
ander was  the  next  to  possess  it.  Lysimachus 
built  its  great  walls  and  changed  its  name  to 
Arsinoe  in  honour  of  his  wife.  Eumenes,  King 
of  Pergamum,  restored  its  old  name.  Attalus 
took  it  next,  and  then  his  descendant,  Attalus 
III.,  bequeathed  it  to  Rome.  Under  the  Romans 
Ephesus  was  the  chief  city  of  the  Roman  Province 
of  Asia,  and  the  richest  in  all  the  Empire.  Once, 
during  the  time  of  Mithridates,  when  the  city 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


119 

revolted  from  Rome,  its  Roman  citizens,  even 
those  that  had  taken  refuge  in  the  temple,  were 
massacred.  Sulla  won  the  city  back  to  Rome 
and  punished  it  for  unfaithfulness.  Antony 
once  besieged  it,  and  with  the  beautiful  Cleopatra 
lived  there  in  great  luxury. 

In  spite  of  wars  and  changes  in  government, 
Ephesus  flourished.  The  temple  steadily  grew  in 
wealth  and  in  influence.  Christianity  came  to 
the  world,  and  in  57  a.d.,  St.  Paul,  on  one  of 
his  missionary  journeys,  came  there.  He  was  a 
brave  man  to  attack  the  goddess  in  her  own  home, 
and  as  eloquent  as  brave,  for  the  people  listened 
eagerly  to  him.  The  pilgrims,  who  had  come  from 
afar  to  worship  the  goddess,  were  drawn  to  the 
new  religion,  and  instead  of  spending  their  money 
for  the  little  shrines  of  the  temple,  they  returned 
home  taking  the  new  religion  with  them.  The 
story  is  told  in  the  Biblical  book  of  the  Acts, 
chapter  xix : 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  . . , Paul  . . . came 
to  Ephesus.  . . . And  he  went  into  the  synagogue 
and  spake  boldly  for  the  space  of  three  months,  dis- 
puting and  persuading  the  things  concerning  the 
kingdom  of  God.  . . . And  many  that  believed 
came,  and  confessed,  and  shewed  their  deeds.  Many 


120 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


of  them  also  which  used  curious  arts,  brought  their 
books  together  and  burned  them  before  all  men: 
and  they  counted  the  price  of  them,  and  found  it 
fifty  thousand  pieces  of  silver.  . . . And  the  same 
time  there  arose  no  small  stir  about  that  way.  For 
a certain  man  named  Demetrius,  a silversmith,  which 
made  silver  shrines  for  Diana,  brought  no  small  gain 
unto  the  craftsmen;  whom  he  called  together  with 
the  workmen  of  like  occupation,  and  said,  Sirs,  ye 
know  that  by  this  craft  we  have  our  wealth.  More- 
over ye  see  and  hear,  that  not  alone  at  Ephesus,  but 
almost  throughout  all  Asia,  this  Paul  hath  persuaded 
and  turned  away  much  people,  saying  that  they  be 
no  gods,  which  are  made  with  hands:  So  that  not  only 
that  this  our  craft  is  in  danger  to  be  set  at  nought; 
but  also  that  the  temple  of  the  great  goddess  Diana 
should  be  despised,  and  her  magnificence  should  be 
destroyed,  whom  all  Asia  and  the  world  worshippeth. 
And  when  they  heard  these  things  they  were  full  of 
wrath,  and  cried  out,  saying,  Great  is  Diana  of  the 
Ephesians.  And  the  whole  city  was  filled  with  con- 
fusion: and  having  caught  Gaius  and  Aristarchus, 
men  of  Macedonia,  Paul’s  companions  in  travel,  they 
rushed  with  one  accord  into  the  theatre.  . . . And 
when  the  town  clerk  had  appeased  the  people,  he 
said,  Ye  men  of  Ephesus,  what  man  is  there  that 
knoweth  not  how  that  the  city  of  the  Ephesians  is  a 
worshipper  of  the  great  goddess  Diana,  and  of  the 
image  which  fell  down  from  Jupiter?  Seeing  then 
that  these  things  cannot  be  spoken  against,  ye  ought 
to  be  quiet,  and  to  do  nothing  rashly.  For  ye  have 
brought  hither  these  men,  which  are  neither  robbers 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


121 


of  churches,  nor  yet  blasphemers  of  your  goddess,  . . . 
For  we  are  in  danger  to  be  called  in  question  for  this 
day’s  uproar,  there  being  no  cause  whereby  we  may 
give  an  account  of  this  concourse. 

As  far  as  we  know  this  was  the  first  serious 
attack  upon  Diana;  and  St.  Paul  was  so  successful 
that  he  established  a Christian  church  at  Ephesus. 
For  a time  the  Christians  were  imprisoned  and 
martyred,  yet  Christianity  spread.  The  trade 
of  the  silversmiths  began  to  fall  away.  The  old 
books  of  sorcery  were  burned.  The  very  exist- 
ence of  Diana  was  threatened,  and  yet  the  struggle 
between  Christianity  and  paganism  continued  for 
more  than  two  centuries.  In  262  A.D.,  the  invad- 
ing Goths  destroyed  the  city  and  burned  the 
temple.  It  was  another  severe  blow  to  Diana. 
A smaller  temple  which  was  built  on  the  old  site 
was  destroyed  by  the  zealous  Christians,  and  the 
followers  of  the  goddess  were  persecuted.  Finally 
the  Roman  Emperor  commanded  that  all  pagan 
temples  be  closed.  The  goddess  Diana,  who  had 
ruled  supreme  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  was  dead, 
and  few  were  left  to  mourn  her. 

Slowly  the  little  that  was  left  of  Ephesus  fell 
to  ruins.  The  stones  of  the  temple  and  of  the 


122 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


fallen  public  buildings  were  used  in  the  construc- 
tion of  another  Christian  church,  whose  ruins  on 
the  hill  near  where  the  temple  had  stood  may  still 
be  seen.  A tradition,  though  probably  it  is  not 
true,  says  that  some  of  the  great  columns  support- 
ing the  dome  of  St.  Sophia  in  Constantinople  were 
taken  from  the  temple.  The  deserted  harbour 
of  the  city  was  soon  choked  up,  and  where  the 
ships  from  all  the  world  used  to  anchor,  the  bul- 
rushes grew.  The  river,  overflowing  its  banks, 
transformed  the  temple  site  into  a malarial  swamp. 
In  the  eleventh  century  the  ruined  city  was  a haunt 
for  the  Greek  pirates  who  plied  their  trade  along 
the  coast.  Two  centuries  later,  when  the  Turks 
came,  a prosperous  town  was  built  near  the  site 
of  the  buried  temple,  and  the  Christian  church, 
already  ancient,  was  in  its  turn  a quarry  for  the 
building  material  of  an  imposing  mosque.  In 
1365,  when  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem 
took  Ephesus,  it  again  became  Christian,  but  in 
1402  Tamerlane  restored  it  to  the  Turks  in  whose 
hands  it  has  remained  till  this  day.  The  ruins 
have  now  long  been  overgrown  with  shrubbery, 
and  their  only  inhabitants  are  a few  miserable 
peasants  who  live  by  catching  the  grey  mullet 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


123 


in  the  old  harbour,  or  by  raising  tobacco  on  the 
few  fertile  spots.  Everywhere  there  is  a confusion 
of  ruins,  but  the  site  of  the  temple  was  long  ago 
completely  forgotten,  and  as  one  writer  has  said: 
4 ‘Of  all  the  great  temples  of  antiquity,  the  Arte- 
mesium,  or  temple  of  Diana,  was  the  only  one 
whose  site  has  disappeared  without  a trace.* ’ 

If  you  would  visit  the  ruins  of  Ephesus,  from 
Smyrna,  you  would  travel  by  the  Aidin  Railroad 
to  the  south  to  the  little  village  of  Ayassoluk. 
The  name  of  the  village,  a corruption  of  the  Greek 
meaning  “The  Holy  Word  of  God,”  recalls  the 
days  when  St.  Paul  established  Christianity  there. 
It  is  a small  squalid  place,  where  idle  Turks  loiter 
about  the  coffee  house,  and  the  storks  roam  un- 
molested along  the  street.  The  great  columns 
of  an  ancient  aqueduct,  now  overgrown  with  vines, 
tower  above  the  little  huts.  The  ruins  of  the  old 
church  on  the  hill  have  nearly  disappeared,  and 
the  great  mosque,  the  stones  of  whose  walls  were 
originally  from  the  temple,  and  then  from  the 
church,  has  long  been  an  imposing  ruin.  A mile 
from  the  village  is  the  great  Magnesian  gate,  and 
beyond  it,  in  the  valley  between  the  hills,  are  ruins 
and  shrubbery  and  waste,  and  silence  everywhere. 


124 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


In  the  year  1863  Mr.  J.  T.  Wood,  representing 
the  British  Museum,  obtained  permission  from 
the  Turkish  Government  to  search  for  the  lost 
temple  of  Diana.  There  were  ruins  in  abundance 
— city  gates  and  marble  streets  and  theatres  and 
churches  and  baths,  but  not  a trace  of  the  temple. 
For  six  long  years  he  searched.  Finally  there  ap- 
peared an  inscription  on  the  theatre  wall  saying 
that  the  sacred  processions  came  from  the  temple 
to  the  city  by  the  Magnesian  gate,  and  returned 
by  the  Coressian  gate.  He  identified  the  gates, 
and  from  the  Magnesian  gate  he  followed  the 
marble  paving  of  the  sacred  way,  now  buried  deep 
beneath  the  fields.  It  led  him  to  a swamp  by  the 
old  mosque,  and  there  on  December  29,  1869, 
twenty  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the  swamp,  he 
found  all  that  was  left  of  the  temple.  Only  its 
foundation  and  a few  scattered  sculptured  stones 
and  inscriptions  remained.  The  work  of  excava- 
tion was  continued  till  1874  when  the  funds  were 
exhausted.  For  fifteen  years  from  1894  the  Aus- 
trian Archaeological  Society  conducted  excavations 
in  the  city  with  valuable  results.  In  the  marble 
paving  blocks  of  the  streets  were  the  deep  ruts 
worn  by  the  chariot  wheels.  Pedestals  for  statues 


The  Sacred  Way  in  Ephesus 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA 


125 


lined  the  sacred  way.  The  great  agora  with  its 
surrounding  colonnade,  the  baths  of  Constantine, 
which  earlier  travellers  had  mistaken  for  the  ruins 
of  the  temple,  the  so-called  Prison  of  St.  Paul,  and 
Tomb  of  St.  Luke,  and  a score  of  wonderful  marble 
buildings,  all  told  of  the  glory  and  the  might  of  the 
great  Diana.  Of  more  importance  to  our  story 
were  the  excavations  by  Hogarth  of  the  British 
Museum.  For  six  months  during  the  year  1904, 
he  laboured  at  the  old  temple  site.  Down  beneath 
the  foundation  of  the  temple  which  Wood  had 
discovered,  he  found  foundation  stones  of  the 
Croesus  temple,  and  beneath  them  were  traces  of 
three  smaller  temples  of  still  earlier  days.  Thus 
the  ruins  repeat  the  long-lost  story  of  the  temple, 
which,  because  it  was  great  and  beautiful  and  rich ; 
because  it  was  a place  of  refuge,  a museum,  a 
bank;  because  it  was  revered  more  widely  than 
any  other,  was  the  wonder  of  the  world. 


The  Site  of  the  Temple  of  Diana 


THE  FIFTH  WONDER 


THe  Tomb  of  King  Mausolus 


127 


The  Tomb  of  Ring  Mausohis 


IN  the  southern  part  of  Asia  Minor,  running 
parallel  with  the  Mediterranean  coast,  is  an 
almost  impassable  mountain  range.  The 
foothills  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  prac- 
tically separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  were 
the  old  kingdom  of  Caria ; now  that  ancient  king- 
dom is  a little  corner  of  the  Turkish  vilayet  of 
Aidin.  Deep  bays,  cutting  far  into  the  land, 
were  the  safe  retreats  for  the  pirates  of  old  when 
they  used  to  haunt  the  coast  to  prey  upon  the 
passing  merchant  ships,  and  the  mountains,  then 
covered  with  huge  pines,  supplied  them  with  an 
abundance  of  material  for  their  boats.  Tradition 
says  that  in  the  very  early  days,  when  the  Tyrian 
galleys  roamed  over  the  seas,  a party  of  Phoeni- 
cians, attracted  by  the  safe  harbours,  settled  there, 
but  probably  others  had  occupied  the  land  before 
them.  Some  believe  that  the  Asiatic  Lelages,  or 
Carians  as  they  were  later  called,  were  the  first 

to  inhabit  the  place,  and  that  their  first  city  stood 
9 129 


130 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


on  the  little  island  of  Zephyria  at  the  head  of  the 
Gulf  of  Cos,  where  you  may  now  see  the  castle  of 
St.  Peter.  However,  Minos,  the  renowned  King 
of  Crete,  compelled  the  Carian  pirates  to  move  to 
the  mainland.  There  they  built  the  city  of  Mylasa ; 
there  they  won  renown  for  their  skill  in  making 
weapons,  and  there  they  became  a nation  so  great 
that  Homer  honoured  them  by  calling  them  the 
allies  of  the  illustrious  Priam  of  Troy. 

At  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Cos,  close  by  the 
little  island  where  the  pirate  village  stood,  and 
where  the  little  Turkish  town  of  Budrum  now 
stands,  was  the  city  of  Halicarnassus.  Some 
claim  that  Halicarnassus  was  of  divine  origin; 
that  it  was  founded  by  Anthes,  the  son  of  the 
god  Poseidon.  Others  believe  that  migrating 
Greeks  settled  in  the  land,  and  mingled  with  the 
Carians.  It  was  at  Halicarnassus  that  the  illus- 
trious historian  Herodotus  was  born,  and  where 
he  lived  until  he  was  exiled. 

Long  lines  of  independent  kings  lived  and  ruled 
at  Mylasa  until  finally,  in  387  B.c.,  the  Persian 
power  spread  over  the  land.  Hecatomnus,  the 
Carian  King,  then  became  the  Persian  satrap  or 
ruler,  and  the  country  was  still  practically  free. 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  131 


Mausolus,  or  Maussollus,  if  you  wish  to  write  his 
name  that  way,  and  Artemisia  his  sister,  were  two 
of  the  children  of  Hecatomnus.  History  tells 
us  that  they  were  both  endowed  with  remarkable 
beauty  and  wisdom,  and  so  devoted  were  they  to 
each  other  that  when  they  had  grown  to  a marriage- 
able age  they  became  husband  and  wife.  It  was 
the  custom  in  the  royal  family  of  Caria  for  brothers 
and  sisters  to  marry,  just  as  now  a European  crown 
prince  is  required  to  take  a wife  from  some  royal 
family.  Few  marriages  have  been  happier  than 
that  of  this  brother  and  sister.  It  is  said  that 
when  Mausolus  died  the  heart-broken  Artemisia 
cremated  the  body  of  her  husband,  and  mixed  the 
ashes  with  the  wine  which  she  drank.  The  tomb 
she  erected  for  him  was  one  of  the  Seven  Wonders 
of  the  World. 

It  was  in  the  year  377  b.c.  that  Hecatomnus 
died,  and  that  Mausolus  and  his  sister-wife  came 
to  the  throne  as  the  representatives  of  the  Persian 
king.  But  Mausolus  chafed  under  the  Persian 
yoke,  rebelled,  and  threw  it  off.  Then  he  invaded 
Lycia  and  Ionia  and  several  of  the  islands  and 
added  them  to  his  kingdom,  and  never  in  all  its 
history  did  Caria  enjoy  such  prosperity.  The 


I32 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


old  city  of  Mylasa  no  longer  seemed  worthy  of 
being  the  home  of  the  King,  so  Mausolus  removed 
his  residence  to  Halicarnassus,  which  he  sought 
to  make  the  most  beautiful  city  in  the  whole  world. 

With  the  plea  that  the  old  city  walls  of  Halicar- 
nassus should  be  enlarged  and  made  worthy  of 
the  capital  of  the  kingdom,  Mausolus  extorted 
vast  sums  of  money  from  the  people  of  Mylasa. 
However,  it  was  rumoured  about  that  he  used  the 
money  for  beautifying  the  city,  or  that  he  secreted 
it  for  himself,  and  that  later  it  was  used  for  the 
building  of  his  tomb.  In  the  most  sightly  spot  in 
the  city,  commanding  a view  of  the  entire  walls 
and  of  the  harbour,  he  built  his  palace.  He  pro- 
tected the  harbour,  and  with  a mole  he  formed  a 
secret  inner  harbour  by  the  palace  where  his 
fleet  of  a hundred  ships  might  safely  anchor  in- 
visible to  the  enemy.  To  increase  the  population 
of  the  city,  he  compelled  the  people  of  Mylasa  and 
of  several  other  towns  to  abandon  their  homes  and 
settle  there.  He  constructed  temples  and  theatres, 
and  soon  Halicarnassus  became  a centre  of  culture. 
He  struck  his  own  silver  coins  which  bore  the 
head  of  Apollo  on  one  side  and  of  Zeus  on  the 
other.  For  all  of  this  still  more  money  was  re- 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  133 


quired,  and  to  obtain  it  Mausolus  taxed  his  people 
heavily.  Discontent  arose,  yet  when  he  died  in 
the  year  353  B.C.,  only  the  good  of  him  was  remem- 
bered. It  was  forgotten  that  he  was  extortionate 
and  unscrupulous. 

It  was  a wonderful  funeral  with  which  the 
broken-hearted  Artemisia  honoured  her  husband. 
According  to  the  custom  there  were  funeral  games 
for  many  days.  Renowned  poets  and  orators 
read  their  poems  and  delivered  their  orations. 
Theodektes,  the  illustrious  poet  who  was  the  pupil 
of  Plato  and  the  friend  of  Aristotle,  won  the 
offered  prize,  perhaps  because  he  was  the  most 
enthusiastic  in  eulogizing  the  dead  King;  but  his 
poem  no  longer  survives. 

When  Artemisia  succeeded  Mausolus  to  the 
throne,  her  one  great  thought  was  to  honour  her 
brother-husband.  Though  the  beautiful  city  was  a 
monument  worthy  of  any  man,  Artemisia  planned 
to  build  for  him  a tomb  which  would  outshine  in 
splendour  all  other  buildings,  and  perpetuate  his 
name  to  the  end  of  time.  And  she  succeeded. 
It  was  the  custom  of  the  kings  of  many  ancient 
lands  to  build  their  own  tombs,  and  it  is  supposed 
that  Mausolus  may  have  planned  his  tomb  and 


134 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


began  its  construction,  but  that  we  may  never 
know.  The  site  selected  for  it  was  at  the  head 
of  the  gulf,  upon  an  elevated  spot  in  the  centre 
of  the  city,  between  the  temple  of  Mars  and  the 
market-place.  The  most  renowned  architects, 
Satyros  and  Pythis,  were  engaged.  The  sculptors 
were  Scopas,  Leochares,  Bryaxis,  and  Timotheus, 
all  rivals  for  the  first  place  in  the  world  of  art. 
Pythis,  the  architect,  sculptured  the  famous 
chariot  group  surmounting  the  tomb. 

But  Artemisia  was  not  left  in  peace  to  mourn  her 
husband  and  to  build  his  tomb.  The  hand  of 
Mausolus  had  rested  heavily  upon  the  people  he 
had  subdued,  and  now  they  sought  their  freedom, 
but  the  woman  who  was  capable  of  building  the 
most  beautiful  of  all  tombs,  was  no  less  skilful 
as  a ruler.  The  inhabitants  of  Rhodes  ridiculed 
the  idea  that  a woman  could  rule  Caria,  and  con- 
fident of  an  easy  victory  over  her,  sent  their  fleet 
against  Halicarnassus.  Artemisia,  learning  of 
their  plans,  secreted  her  ships  in  the  inner  harbour 
and  stationed  her  soldiers  on  the  walls.  As  the 
fleet  approached,  the  soldiers,  in  accordance  with 
her  instructions,  seemed  to  surrender,  and  the 
Rhodians,  abandoning  their  ships,  went  ashore  to 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  135 


take  possession  of  the  city.  No  sooner  had  they 
landed  than  Artemisia  sailed  from  the  secret 
harbour,  and  captured  the  entire  Rhodian  fleet, 
while  the  soldiers,  rushing  from  the  walls  down 
into  the  city,  surrounded  the  enemy  in  the  market- 
place and  cut  them  to  pieces.  Artemisia,  how- 
ever, was  not  contented  with  the  capture  of  the 
hostile  fleet.  Immediately  she  manned  the 
Rhodian  ships  with  her  own  seamen,  decked  them 
out  gaily  with  laurel,  and  sailed  for  Rhodes. 
When  she  appeared  off  the  island,  the  people 
thought  their  fleet  was  returning  home  in  triumph 
and  joyfully  welcomed  it  into  the  harbour.  Soon 
they  saw  their  mistake,  for  the  leaders  were  quickly 
put  to  death,  and  the  island  remained  subject  to 
Artemisia.  In  a public  square  of  Rhodes  was 
erected  to  the  victorious  Queen  one  of  the  many 
large  bronze  statues  for  which  the  city  was  famous 
until  the  larger  Colossus  of  Rhodes  outshone  them 
all.  There  it  stood  till  Artemisia  died  and  Rhodes 
became  free,  when  the  statue,  so  hated  by  the 
people,  was  removed. 

In  the  meantime  the  construction  of  the  tomb 
progressed,  but  Queen  Artemisia  was  not  destined 
to  see  it  completed.  For  two  years  she  mourned 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


136 


her  brother-husband,  and  then,  in  351  b.C.,  she 
was  buried  with  him. 

With  the  death  of  Artemisia  work  upon  the 
tomb  was  not  permitted  to  cease.  Each  of  the 
four  sculptors  had  been  given  one  of  its  sides  to 
adorn,  and  each  eagerly  sought  to  surpass  the 
others  in  the  excellency  of  his  workmanship. 
When  the  funds  were  exhausted,  the  work  became 
a labour  of  love;  fame  would  be  the  reward.  It  is 
not  known  in  just  what  year  the  tomb  was  com- 
pleted, yet  it  was  completed,  and  all  who  saw  it 
marvelled. 

The  ancient  writers  were  fond  of  describing  the 
mausoleum.  Travellers  of  the  Middle  Ages  have 
told  how  it  perished,  and  recent  excavations  at 
Halicarnassus  have  brought  to  light  its  ruins. 
One  of  the  tritest  of  the  ancient  descriptions  of  it 
was  when  Anaxagoras  saw  it  and  exclaimed : ‘ ‘ How 
much  money  is  changed  into  stone.”  The  best  of 
the  early  descriptions  is  that  of  Pliny,  who  lived 
after  it  had  already  been  standing  four  centuries. 
Naming  the  artists  employed  in  its  construction, 
he  says : 

Artemisia  made  this  sepulchre  for  her  husband, 
Mausolus,  Prince  of  Caria,  who  died  in  the  second 


vA  1 


Reconstruction  of  the  Mausoleum 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  137 


year  of  the  hundred  and  seventh  Olympiad.  It  was 
chiefly  due  to  the  artists  whom  I have  already  named 
that  the  work  was  reckoned  among  the  seven  wonders. 
On  the  south  and  north  it  extends  163  feet,  being 
shorter  in  the  fronts;  its  entire  circumference  is  411 
feet;  it  is  raised  in  height  25  cubits;  round  it  are 
thirty-six  columns. 

The  part  surrounding  the  tomb  was  called  the 
Pteron.  The  sculptures  on  the  east  side  were  by 
Scopas,  on  the  north  by  Bryaxis,  on  the  south  by 
Timotheus,  on  the  west  by  Leochares. 

Before  the  artists  terminated  their  labours,  Queen 
Artemisia  died,  but  they  did  not  cease  from  their 
work  till  it  was  completely  finished,  regarding  it  as  a 
monument  of  their  own  fame  and  of  art.  To  this  day 
it  is  a matter  of  dispute  which  of  the  four  masterpieces 
is  the  finest.  With  these  sculptors  a fifth  artist  was 
associated.  For,  above  the  Pteron,  a pyramid  equalled 
the  lower  height,  contracting  by  twenty-four  steps 
to  a point  like  that  of  a meta.  On  the  summit  is  a 
marble  chariot  with  four  horses,  the  work  of  Pythis. 
The  addition  of  this  made  the  height  of  the  entire 
work  140  feet. 

The  ancient  accounts  of  the  tomb  are  so  con- 
fusing and  contradictory  that  modern  scholars, 
who  have  attempted  to  reconstruct  it  from  them, 
have  had  little  success.  Could  Queen  Artemisia 
awake  to  see  the  steeple  of  St.  George’s  Church 
in  Bloomsbury,  England,  modelled,  so  the  archi- 


138 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


tect  thought,  after  the  famous  tomb,  she  would 
probably  fail  to  see  a resemblance.  The  excava- 
tions at  Halicarnassus,  however,  have  at  last 
given  us  more  accurate  knowledge,  and  the  Temple 
of  the  Scottish  Rite  in  Washington  is  a more 
accurate  reconstruction. 

To  prepare  the  foundation  of  the  tomb  the  ar- 
chitects levelled  the  native  rock,  digging  it  away 
upon  one  side  to  the  depth  of  fifteen  feet.  The 
foundation,  laid  upon  this  rock,  measured  127 
feet  from  east  to  west,  and  108  from  north  to 
south.  It  was  therefore  not  quite  square.  The 
greenish  stone  of  its  foundation  was  quarried  in 
the  vicinity,  and  shaped  into  blocks  averaging 
four  feet  square  and  one  foot  in  thickness.  They 
were  held  together  with  iron  clamps.  Through 
the  foundation  wall  led  a passageway,  lined  with 
marble  slabs,  to  the  sepulchral  chamber  within. 

Upon  the  foundation  stood  the  rectangular 
podium  or  basement  of  the  tomb,  measuring  114 
by  92  feet.  It  also  was  built  of  green  stone  en- 
cased with  marble.  Groups  of  statuary  stood 
about  its  base,  and  the  bareness  of  the  walls  was 
relieved  with  sculptured  slabs.  At  the  four  cor- 
ners were  stone  platforms  with  equestrian  groups. 


From  the  Frieze  of  the  Mausoleum 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAU SOLUS  139 


Upon  the  podium  stood  the  pteron,  or  the  en- 
closure of  the  cella,  like  a square  stage  surrounded 
with  thirty-six  fluted  columns  of  the  Ionic  order, 
twenty-nine  feet  high,  and  placed  ten  feet  apart. 
Between  the  columns  stood  marble  statues,  and 
above  them,  extending  about  the  four  sides  of  the 
building,  was  the  wonderful  frieze  with  which  the 
greatest  artists  of  the  ancient  world  sought  to 
perpetuate  their  fame.  On  one  side  was  sculp- 
tured the  combat  between  the  Greeks  and  the 
Amazons.  On  another  was  the  battle  of  the 
Centaurs.  The  subjects  of  the  sculptures  on 
the  other  two  sides  are  no  longer  certain.  Above 
the  frieze  was  the  cornice  of  a simple  echinus  pat- 
tern, and  at  each  of  its  corners,  and  at  intervals 
along  its  sides,  were  sculptured  lions’  heads. 

Next  came  the  pyramid,  measuring  "at  the  base 
of  its  longer  side  105  feet  and  5 inches.  Its 
twenty -four  steps  were  built  of  marble  slabs,  each 
four  feet  long  and  fifteen  inches  in  thickness. 
Grooves  with  tongues  to  fit  them,  and  iron  clamps 
held  them  in  place. 

Surmounting  the  pyramid  was  a platform  about 
twenty-five  and  a half  feet  long  and  five  feet  less 
in  width,  to  support  the  famous  chariot  group 


140 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


which  was  the  crowning  glory  of  the  tomb.  Four 
huge  horses  twelve  feet  in  length  were  attached 
to  the  chariot  with  harnesses  of  bronze.  The 
wheels  of  the  chariot  were  seven  feet  and  seven 
inches  in  diameter,  and  the  alternate  spaces  be- 
tween the  six  spokes  were  closed  for  greater 
strength.  Within  the  chariot  stood  the  large 
statue  of  King  Mausolus,  and  with  him,  either 
in  the  chariot,  or  on  the  pedestal  at  his  side,  was 
the  statue  of  a female  attendant,  possibly  his  de- 
voted wife  Artemisia.  Fully  one  fourth  of  the 
chariot  group  has  been  recovered,  including  the 
statue  of  Mausolus,  and  this  is  fortunate,  for  it 
is  one  of  the  best  portrait  statues  from  the  ancient 
world . It  stands  nine  feet  and  ten  inches  in  height ; 
the  statue  of  his  female  attendant  is  fourteen 
inches  shorter.  If  now  you  will  look  upon  the 
portrait  of  King  Mausolus,  you  will  see  a square 
massive  face,  with  deep-set  eyes,  heavy  brows,  and 
a firm  mouth.  A thick  short  beard  covers  the 
lower  part  of  the  face,  and  heavy  hair  hangs  down 
nearly  to  the  shoulders.  The  face  and  the  form 
suggest  a large,  strong,  active  man.  Unfortunately 
the  face  of  the  female  figure  has  been  broken  away. 

Should  a structure  of  marble  similar  to  the 


Statue  of  Artemisia  (?) 


Statue  of  Mausolus 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  141 


mausoleum  be  erected  at  the  present  time,  as  the 
Temple  of  the  Scottish  Rite  in  Washington,  it 
would  probably  remain  one  great  mass  of  shining 
white.  The  beauty  of  the  stone  would  suffice. 
But  the  ancient  sculptors  were  not  so  easily  satis- 
fied. The  parts  of  the  statues  representing  flesh 
were  tinted.  The  eyes  and  hair  were  of  their 
natural  colour.  The  clothing  was  of  brilliant 
hues.  The  lions  and  horses  were  painted.  The 
ground  for  the  sculptures  and  ornaments  was 
blue,  and  the  mouldings  were  red.  Even  the 
white  marble  of  the  walls,  which  was  left  unpainted, 
was  toned  down  with  a coat  of  varnish  or  of  wax 
to  relieve  it  of  its  dazzling  glare. 

Such  was  the  appearance  of  the  exterior  of  the 
mausoleum.  It  was  not  its  magnitude  which  won 
it  admiration,  for  it  covered  but  half  the  area  of 
the  Parthenon,  yet  it  was  about  twice  as  high. 
The  graceful  outlines,  the  harmonious  colouring, 
the  profusion  of  statues  and  reliefs  artistically 
placed,  the  perfection  of  the  minutest  details,  and 
especially  the  best  work  by  the  most  famous  artists, 
brought  it  fame.  * 

Our  knowledge  of  the  interior  is  meagre.  In 
the  basement  was  the  sepulchral  chamber  to  which 


142 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


the  body  of  the  king  was  taken  through  a narrow 
passageway.  A huge  stone  was  arranged  to  fall 
into  place  after  the  burial,  completely  blocking 
up  the  entrance,  and  leaving  the  body  with  the 
treasures  beyond  the  reach  of  the  grave  robber. 
We  no  longer  know  if  Artemisia  was  placed  to  rest 
in  the  chamber  with  her  husband,  or  in  the  larger 
space  above. 

From  the  floor  above  the  sepulchral  chamber 
the  view  upward  revealed  tier  after  tier  of  columns 
and  galleries,  one  above  the  other  to  the  apex  of 
the  pyramid.  How  the  stairways  were  arranged, 
or  how  the  interior  was  lighted,  we  may  only 
conjecture.  However,  here  and  there  in  the  semi- 
darkness sculptured  reliefs  stood  boldly  out,  and 
statues  of  men  guarded  the  tomb  below.  There 
was  such  an  effect  of  lightness  about  the  mauso- 
leum that  the  report  persistently  floated  about 
the  ancient  world  that  it  was  suspended  in  the  air. 

When  Artemisia  died,  she  was  succeeded  to  the 
throne  by  her  brother  Idrieus.  It  was  probably 
during  his  reign  that  the  tomb  was  completed. 
Idrieus  married  his  sister  Ada,  who,  after  her 
husband’s  death,  asked  Alexander  the  Great  if 
she  might  adopt  him  as  her  son.  Ada  was  ban- 


The  Scottish  Rite  Temple  in  Washington 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAU SOLUS  143 


ished  by  another  brother.  With  the  rise  of  Alex- 
ander the  dynasty  of  Hecatomnus  came  to  an  end, 
and  Caria  became  a part  of  his  empire.  Changes 
followed  rapidly.  Menander,  Antigonus,  Lysi- 
machus,  Ptolemy,  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  the 
Romans  in  turn  ruled  the  land,  but  the  tomb 
continued  in  all  its  beauty.  Travellers  from  afar 
came  to  see  it.  Lucian  in  his  Dialogues  of  the 
Dead  makes  Mausolus  to  say : 

Besides  that  personal  superiority,  I am  beautiful, 
tall  of  stature,  and  of  so  robust  a constitution  as  en- 
abled me  to  sustain  all  the  hardships  and  fatigues  of 
war;  but  to  be  brief,  the  principal  point  is,  I have  a 
prodigious  monument  raised  over  me  at  Halicarnas- 
sus, which,  for  magnitude  and  beauty,  has  not  its 
equal  in  the  whole  world.  It  is  decorated  with  the 
most  exquisite  figures  of  men  and  horses,  all  carried 
to  such  a degree  of  perfection,  and  in  such  exceedingly 
fine  marbles,  as  you  will  not  easily  find  even  in  a 
temple. 

Lucian  later  makes  Diogenes  humorously  to 
remark  in  reply : 

As  to  your  monument  and  the  costly  marble  of 
which  it  is  built,  the  inhabitants  of  Halicarnassus 
may  certainly  have  reason  to  show  it  to  strangers, 
and  to  think  much  of  themselves  for  possessing  so 


144 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


costly  a work  within  their  walls;  but,  my  handsome 
friend,  I do  not  see  what  sort  of  enjoyment  you  should 
have  in  it.  You  should  only  say  that  you  have  a 
heavier  load  than  the  rest  of  us,  since  you  have  such 
an  enormous  heap  of  stones  lying  upon  you. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  Halicar- 
nassus was  nearly  deserted,  and  the  mausoleum, 
still  standing,  was  unguarded.  Cicero,  the  orator, 
accused  Verres  of  carrying  away  its  statues.  Once 
in  the  time  of  Quintus  an  effort  was  made  to 
restore  the  city;  later  the  Jews  sought  to  build  a 
temple  there,  but  the  old  Carian  capital  slowly 
declined,  and  in  time  it  was  almost  forgotten. 
Only  the  tomb  remained.  In  the  fourth  Christian 
century  Gregory  remarked  that  it  had  not  been 
plundered.  Constantine  of  the  tenth  century 
says  that  it  was  still  standing,  and  even  in  the 
twelfth  century  a traveller  writes  that  “It  was 
and  is  a wonder.” 

Sometime  before  the  year  1402  a severe  earth- 
quake shook  the  mausoleum.  The  chariot  group 
at  the  top  was  hurled  from  the  pedestal  far  to  the 
north,  and  buried  in  the  dirt.  With  it  fell  the 
statue  of  Mausolus,  breaking  it  into  more  than 
fifty  pieces ; the  statue  of  his  attendant  fared  even 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  145 


worse.  The  pyramid  collapsed,  and  the  beautiful 
frieze  fell  amid  the  ruins  and  was  broken. 

In  1402  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem 
took  Halicarnassus,  which  then  bore  the  name  of 
Mecy,  and  the  German  knight,  Henry  Schlegelholt, 
built  the  fortress  of  St.  Peter,  which  is  still  stand- 
ing. The  stones  for  the  castle  were  taken  from 
the  mausoleum;  its  sculptured  marble  slabs  were 
converted  to  lime  for  cement,  yet  the  artistic 
nature  of  the  knight  prompted  him  to  build  some 
of  the  reliefs  into  the  castle  wall.  The  building 
and  the  repairs  of  the  castle  extended  over  a cen- 
tury, yet  the  base  of  the  mausoleum  with  the 
sepulchral  chamber  still  remained. 

At  Lyons,  France,  in  1581  there  were  published 
the  works  of  Guichard,  containing  the  following 
story  which  appears  to  be  true.  It  describes  the 
final  disappearance  of  the  parts  of  the  mausoleum 
which  had  escaped  the  plundering  knights. 

In  the  year  1542,  when  Sultan  Solyman  was  pre- 
paring to  attack  Rhodes,  the  Grand  Master,  knowing 
the  importance  of  the  castle  of  St.  Peter,  and  being 
aware  that  the  Turks  would  seize  it  easily  at  the  first 
assault,  sent  some  knights  thither  to  repair  the  for- 
tress and  make  all  due  preparations  to  resist  the  enemy. 

10 


146 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


Among  the  number  of  those  sent  was  the  Commander 
de  la  Tourette,  a Lyonese  knight,  who  was  afterwards 
present  at  the  taking  of  Rhodes,  and  came  to  France 
where  he  related  what  I am  now  about  to  narrate  to 
M.  d’Alechamps,  a person  sufficiently  known  by  his 
learned  writings,  and  whose  name  I mention  here 
only  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  my  authority  for 
so  singular  a story. 

When  the  knights  had  arrived  at  Mecy  they  at  once 
commenced  fortifying  the  castle,  and,  looking  about 
for  stones  wherewith  to  make  lime,  found  no  more 
suitable  or  more  easily  got  at  than  certain  steps  of 
white  marble,  raised  in  the  form  of  a terrace  in  the 
middle  of  a level  field  near  the  port  which  had  formerly 
been  the  Great  Place  of  Halicarnassus.  They  there- 
fore pulled  down  and  took  away  these  marble  steps, 
and,  finding  the  stone  good,  proceeded,  after  having 
destroyed  the  little  masonry  remaining  above  ground, 
to  dig  down,  in  the  hope  of  finding  more. 

In  this  attempt  they  had  great  success,  for  in  a 
short  time  they  perceived  that  the  deeper  they  went, 
the  more  the  structure  was  enlarged  at  the  base,  sup- 
plying them  not  only  with  stone  for  making  lime,  but 
also  for  building. 

After  four  or  five  days,  having  laid  bare  a great 
space  one  afternoon,  they  saw  an  opening  as  into  a 
cellar.  Taking  a candle,  they  let  themselves  down 
through  this  opening,  and  found  that  it  led  into  a fine 
large  square  apartment,  ornamented  all  round  with 
columns  of  marble,  with  their  bases,  capitals,  archi- 
trave, frieze,  and  cornices,  engraved  and  sculptured 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  147 


in  half  relief.  The  space  between  the  columns  was 
lined  with  slabs  and  marbles  of  different  colours,  or- 
namented with  mouldings  and  sculptures,  in  harmony 
with  the  rest  of  the  work,  and  inserted  in  the  white 
ground  of  the  walls,  where  battle  scenes  were  repre- 
sented sculptured  in  relief. 

Having  at  first  admired  these  works,  and  enter- 
tained their  fancy  with  the  singularity  of  the  sculp- 
ture, they  pulled  it  to  pieces,  and  broke  up  the  whole 
of  it,  applying  it  to  the  same  purposes  as  the  rest. 

Besides  this  apartment,  they  found  afterwards  a 
very  low  door,  which  led  into  another  apartment, 
serving  as  an  antechamber,  where  was  a sepulchre, 
with  its  vase  and  helmet,  of  white  marble,  very  beau- 
tiful, and  of  marvellous  lustre.  This  sepulchre,  for 
want  of  time,  they  did  not  open,  the  retreat  having 
been  sounded. 

The  day  after,  when  they  returned,  they  found  the 
tomb  opened,  and  the  earth  all  round  strewn  with 
fragments  of  cloth  of  gold,  and  spangles  of  the  same 
metal,  which  made  them  suppose  that  the  pirates, 
who  hovered  along  the  coast,  having  some  inkling  of 
what  had  been  discovered,  had  visited  the  place  during 
the  night,  and  had  removed  the  lid  of  the  sepulchre. 
It  is  supposed  that  they  discovered  in  it  much  treasure. 

It  was  thus  that  the  magnificent  tomb,  which 
ranked  among  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world,  after 
having  escaped  the  fury  of  the  Barbarians,  and  re- 
mained standing  for  the  space  of  2247  years,  was 
discovered  and  destroyed  to  repair  the  castle  of  St. 
Peter,  by  the  Knights  of  Rhodes,  who  immediately 


148 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


after  this  were  driven  completely  out  of  Asia  by  the 
Turks. 

Thus  the  tomb  of  Mausolus  perished.  The 
sepulchral  chamber  was  plundered  by  pirates, 
the  sarcophagus  opened,  and  its  treasures  carried 
away.  Soon  even  the  site  of  the  mausoleum  was 
forgotten.  In  1665,  when  Thevenot,  a French 
traveller,  visited  the  little  Turkish  village  of 
Budrum,  as  Halicarnassus  was  then  and  is  still 
called,  he  saw  the  marble  reliefs  which  the  knights 
had  built  into  the  castle  wail.  In  1846  Viscount 
Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  the  British  Ambassador 
to  Constantinople,  with  the  permission  of  the 
Turkish  Government,  sent  thirteen  of  the  sculp- 
tures to  the  British  Museum,  where  they  were 
pointed  out  as  all  that  remained  of  the  famous 
tomb. 

It  was  in  1855  that  steps  were  taken  to  excavate 
the  ruins  of  Halicarnassus.  Mr.  Charles  T. 
Newton,  formerly  of  the  British  Museum,  and 
then  British  Vice-Consul  at  the  island  of  Mitylene, 
found  in  the  walls  of  the  castle  of  St.  Peter  several 
large  lions  of  Pentelic  marble.  He  believed  that 
once  they  had  adorned  the  mausoleum.  The  next 
year,  after  expending  six  weeks  in  exploring  the 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAUSOLUS  149 


ruins,  he  requested  the  British  Government  to 
support  him  in  their  excavation.  Provided  with 
the  ship  Gorgon  and  its  crew  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men,  and  with  the  sum  of  ten  thousand 
dollars,  he  obtained  a firman  from  the  Turkish 
Government,  and  reached  Budrum  in  November. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1857,  he  began  the 
work  of  excavation.  Guided  by  the  statement  of 
the  ancient  author,  Vitruvius,  that  the  mausoleum 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  harbour  between  the 
market-place  and  the  temple  of  Mars,  he  sought 
the  site  of  the  tomb.  The  land  was  owned  by 
private  individuals,  and  houses  had  been  erected 
upon  it.  These  he  purchased.  In  the  walls  of 
the  houses  he  found  fragments  of  the  famous 
frieze.  In  the  ground  beneath  them  were  parts 
of  other  sculptured  slabs,  and  of  statues  and  lions. 
He  came  to  a stairway  twenty-nine  feet  wide,  cut 
from  the  solid  rock,  and  followed  down  its  twelve 
steps  to  the  bottom;  the  lowest  step  was  buried 
beneath  twenty  feet  of  dirt.  There  upon  the 
native  rock  the  base  of  the  foundation  wall  was 
still  in  place.  There  he  found  alabaster  jars,  one 
of  which  bore  the  name  of  the  Persian  King  Xerxes 
in  four  different  languages.  There  were  terra- 


150 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


cotta  figurines,  the  bones  of  oxen,  a small  ivory 
elephant  half  an  inch  in  length,  an  iron  dagger, 
and  a marble  casket  with  its  sides  sculptured  in 
low  relief.  There  too  was  the  huge  square  stone 
of  ten  thousand  pounds  weight,  which  had  closed 
the  entrance  to  the  sepulchral  chamber.  A little 
to  the  north,  buried  in  the  dirt,  were  the  fragments 
of  the  chariot  group  with  the  statues  of  Mausolus 
and  his  companion,  just  where  they  had  fallen. 
The  fragments  of  twenty  lions,  and  of  many  of 
the  statues  and  steps  of  the  pyramid  were  re- 
covered. The  fortress  of  St.  Peter  was  again 
carefully  explored,  and  still  other  fragments  were 
found.  High  up  in  the  walls  was  the  torso  of  one 
of  the  horses  of  the  chariot  group,  punctured  with 
bullets;  the  modern  Turks  of  Budrum  had  used 
it  as  a target. 

Piece  by  piece  all  of  the  fragments  that  had 
escaped  the  hands  of  the  destructive  knights  were 
gathered  and  sent  to  the  British  Museum.  Each 
piece  was  carefully  studied  to  learn  just  what 
place  it  had  occupied,  and  at  last,  after  more 
than  half  a century,  the  architect  may  draw  a 
fairly  accurate  picture  of  the  mausoleum.  So  if 
you  would  see  all  that  is  left  of  this  wonder  of  the 


THE  TOMB  OF  KING  MAJJSOLUS  151 


world,  it  would  be  of  little  purpose  to  visit  the 
site  of  the  old  city  of  Halicarnassus.  In  the  castle 
of  St.  Peter  you  would  see  the  great  blocks  of 
green  stone  of  its  foundation.  In  the  field  at  the 
head  of  the  harbour,  among  the  squalid  Turkish 
homes,  you  would  stand  upon  the  spot  where  it 
stood,  but  it  is  in  the  British  Museum  that  you 
will  find  the  best  of  all  that  has  survived  of  the 
wonderful  monument — the  broken  silent  witnesses 
of  the  wonderful  love  of  Queen  Artemisia  for  her 
brother-husband  Mausolus. 


THE  SIXTH  WONDER 
The  Colossus  of  Rhodes 


153 


The  Colossus  of  Rhodes 

SCATTERED  from  the  eastern  coast  of  Greece 
across  the  JEgean  Sea  to  Asia  Minor  are 
scores  of  beautiful  islands.  Upon  the  map 
they  seem  like  stepping-stones  for  the  giants  of  old 
to  pass  dry  shod  from  shore  to  shore.  The  main- 
land of  Greece,  even  in  her  most  prosperous  days, 
was  always  small;  her  families  were  large,  and  the 
few  fruitful  valleys  deep  among  the  barren  hills 
have  never  yielded  more  than  a scant  supply  of 
food.  So  the  Greeks  have  always  been  a roving 
people,  seeking  new  homes  wherever  they  might 
better  their  conditions.  In  the  early  days  the 
beautiful  islands  of  the  ^Egean,  so  near  to  their 
shores,  were  their  favourite  settling  places.  There 
they  built  cities,  established  island  kingdoms,  and 
waged  wars.  In  times  of  peace  they  sent  their 
merchant  fleets  throughout  the  world;  they  cul- 
tivated the  arts  and  literature,  and  the  cities  of 
the  island  kingdoms  were  scarcely  less  brilliant 

than  was  Athens  in  her  brightest  days. 

155 


156 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


The  most  easterly  of  the  HSgean  islands  is 
Rhodes,  lying  twelve  miles  from  the  Asia  Minor 
shore,  just  where  Cape  Alypo  juts  into  the  sea. 
It  is  the  largest  of  the  Sporades  group,  yet  its 
length  from  north-east  to  south-west  is  but  forty- 
five  miles;  its  width  is  half  its  length;  its  area  of 
424  square  miles  is  less  than  half  the  size  of  our  own 
little  Rhode  Island.  A mountain  range,  Atairo, 
the  Atabyris  of  the  ancients,  whose  highest  peaks 
reach  4560  feet  above  the  sea,  runs  lengthwise 
through  the  island,  and  from  their  summits  Crete 
is  visible  on  the  southern  horizon.  From  the 
central  range  spurs  reach  out  in  every  direction 
as  if  they  were  arms  bathing  in  the  sea.  Thus 
along  the  coast  large,  beautiful,  amphitheatre-like 
harbours  are  formed.  The  mountainsides  were 
once  clothed  with  forests  of  mighty  trees,  but 
their  Turkish  owners  have  cut  them  down  for 
making  charcoal.  Figs,  oranges,  pomegranates, 
and  grapes,  favoured  by  the  gentle  climate,  have 
always  grown  there  abundantly. 

History  has  not  yet  told  us  the  name  of  the  first 
people  who  lived  upon  the  island,  or  when  or 
whence  they  came,  yet  we  know  that  Rhodes  was 
inhabited  centuries  before  Homer  sang  of  Troy. 


THE  COLOSSUS  OF  RHODES 


157 


Tradition  says  that  the  Telchines,  renowned  for 
their  skill  as  metal  workers,  were  the  first  to  settle 
there.  The  earliest  Rhodian  inhabitants  of  whom 
history  speaks  were  the  Greek  colonists  from 
Argos.  There  they  built  cities;  they  sailed  their 
ships  on  all  the  seas;  their  prosperity  attracted 
others  from  the  mainland  until  the  little  island 
could  support  no  more,  and  in  their  turn  they  sent 
out  colonists  to  settle  in  Asia  Minor,  in  Italy,  and 
even  in  distant  Spain. 

At  the  extreme  north-eastern  end  of  the  island 
is  a large  harbour  embraced  by  two  of  the  arms 
projecting  from  the  mountains.  There  small 
bands  of  colonists  had  built  their  homes,  but  it  was 
not  till  408  b.c.  that  the  harbour  was  selected  as 
the  site  of  the  city  of  Rhodes.  Hippodamus,  an 
architect  of  Miletus,  was  selected  to  lay  out  its 
plan,  and  the  new  capital  of  the  thriving  little 
kingdom  soon  rivalled  the  older  cities  of  Greece. 
Its  streets  were  straight  and  wide,  its  lofty  walls 
were  strong  enough  to  resist  the  most  powerful 
armies.  To  the  Sun-god  Helios,  or  Apollo,  the 
deity  of  the  island,  a magnificent  temple  was 
erected,  and  in  the  public  squares  stood  fully  a 
hundred  colossal  statues  of  gods  and  of  men.  A 


158 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


long  pier  was  built  forming  two  harbours  where 
there  had  been  one  before.  At  the  entrance  to 
the  smaller  harbour  to  the  east,  rocks  were  heaped 
up  so  that  but  a single  ship  might  enter  at  a time, 
but  the  larger  harbour  to  the  west  could  accom- 
modate her  many  merchant  fleets. 

To  increase  the  population  of  the  new  city,  the 
inhabitants  of  Lindus,  Ialysus,  and  Camorus,  and 
other  towns  of  the  island,  were  brought  there,  and 
the  fame  of  Rhodes  aroused  the  covetousness 
of  her  neighbours.  Its  independence  was  brief. 
Successively  it  became  subject  to  Sparta  and  to 
Athens,  and  to  Artemisia  of  Halicarnassus,  who 
built  the  wonderful  tomb  to  her  husband  Mauso- 
lus.  In  340  B.C.,  it  was  captured  by  the  Persians; 
eight  years  later  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  but  when  Alexander  died,  it  recovered 
its  freedom. 

Again  at  peace,  Rhodes  prospered.  Once  more 
its  merchant  ships  covered  the  seas.  Alexandria 
at  that  time  was  the  great  market  where  the  grains 
of  India  and  Africa  were  stored,  but  it  was  in 
Rhodian  ships  that  they  were  distributed  through- 
out the  world.  Thus  was  formed  a strong  bond  be- 
tween the  little  island  and  the  great  Egyptian  city. 


THE  COLOSSUS  OF  RHODES 


159 


When  Alexander  died,  Antigonus,  one  of  his 
generals,  became  King  of  Macedonia.  A quarrel 
arose  between  Macedonia  and  King  Ptolemy  of 
Egypt,  and  Antigonus,  with  his  son  Demetrius, 
made  war  upon  the  Egyptian  King.  Then  the 
commerce  and  the  prosperity  of  little  Rhodes  were 
threatened,  for  if  Alexandria  fell,  there  would  be 
no  grain  for  the  Rhodian  ships  to  carry.  Rhodes, 
therefore,  sent  its  fleet  to  the  aid  of  Ptolemy,  and 
the  Macedonians  were  driven  home. 

Though  little  Rhodes  saved  its  shipping,  Deme- 
trius, determined  that  it  should  be  punished  for 
causing  his  defeat,  laid  siege  to  the  city.  It  was 
a fierce  war.  The  historians  of  the  time  say  that 
the  Macedonians  anchored  before  the  city  with 
three  hundred  and  seventy  ships,  and  with  forty 
thousand  men  on  board.  Among  the  strange 
instruments  of  war  which  they  brought  was  a 
helopoliSy  or  a wooden  tower  nine  stories  high,  so 
heavy  that  3400  men  were  required  to  move  it. 
There  was  consternation  in  Rhodes,  for  its  seven 
thousand  citizens  and  foreigners  were  too  few  to 
resist  the  enemy.  The  slaves  were  armed  and 
were  promised  liberty  if  victory  should  be  won; 
if  slain,  they  were  promised  a public  funeral,  their 


i6o 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


daughters  a dowry,  and  their  sons  an  education 
at  the  expense  of  the  state.  It  was  a struggle  for 
existence;  the  rich  gave  their  wealth;  the  women 
cut  off  their  hair  for  bow-strings. 

With  his  mighty  engines  Demetrius  made 
breaches  in  the  wall.  Once  he  broke  into  the  city, 
but  he  was  quickly  repelled.  Then  the  Rhodians 
tore  down  their  temples  and  theatres  to  obtain 
material  for  an  inner  wall  about  the  city.  At 
length,  their  old  friend  Ptolemy  came  to  their  aid, 
and  for  this  he  was  honoured  with  the  name  Saviour 
or  Soter.  It  was  still  a hard  fight  of  twelve  months, 
when  finally  the  Rhodians  succeeded  in  burning 
the  wooden  parts  of  the  engines  of  war.  Deme- 
trius, discouraged,  abandoned  the  siege,  and  sailed 
away,  leaving  behind  him  all  that  was  left  of  the 
great  engines  of  war.  It  was  from  the  metal  of 
these  engines,  or  with  the  proceeds,  thirty  talents, 
derived  from  its  sale,  that  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes 
was  built. 

Again  Rhodes  was  at  peace.  Demetrius  had 
been  driven  away ; the  city  was  saved ; the  Rhodian 
ships  again  carried  the  grain  of  Alexandria ; pros- 
perity returned;  the  people  were  happy.  Among 
the  citizens  was  Chares,  a sculptor  of  Lindus,  and 


THE  COLOSSUS  OF  RHODES  161 


a pupil  of  the  renowned  Lysippus,  who  had  beau- 
tified the  city  with  the  colossal  statues  of  the 
deities.  Among  his  many  works,  which  had  won 
the  admiration  of  all  the  world,  was  a chariot  of 
the  Sun-god,  standing  twenty-five  feet  in  height. 
Why  should  not  a monument  be  erected  to  com- 
memorate the  victory  over  Demetrius?  Money 
was  at  hand,  and  for  what  better  purpose  could 
be  used  the  thirty  talents  derived  from  the  sale  of 
the  instruments  of  war  abandoned  by  Demetrius  ? 
Who  but  Chares,  who  had  already  adorned  the 
city  with  statues,  was  worthy  of  building  one 
mightier  than  all  the  others,  one  to  cause  all  the 
world  to  wonder?  To  whom  but  Helios,  the  pro- 
tecting god  of  the  city,  should  the  statue  be  dedi- 
cated ? Where  should  the  statue  stand  but  on  the 
mole  in  the  harbour  where  the  fleet  of  the  van- 
quished Demetrius  had  been  anchored?  Chares 
accepted  the  commission,  and  so  there  came  into 
existence  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes,  the  sixth  of  the 
Seven  Wonders  of  the  World. 

The  ancient  authors  have  told  us  little  of  this 
great  work  of  Chares,  but  his  was  a Herculean 
task.  For  twelve  long  years  he  laboured,  and  at 
last,  in  the  year  280  B.C.,  his  task  was  completed. 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


162 


Section  by  section  the  brass  had  been  cast  in 
moulds,  and  was  ready  to  be  raised  on  its  founda- 
tion in  the  harbour.  It  is  only  a mediaeval  tradi- 
tion which  claims  that  the  statue  stood  astride 
the  entrance  to  the  harbour,  and  that  the  tallest 
ships  might  pass  between  its  legs.  The  ancients 
make  no  mention  of  so  undignified  a position.  As 
the  monstrous  brass  legs  were  erected,  the  great 
hollows  within  were  filled  with  stone  masonry, 
lest  the  body  become  top  heavy  and  fall  over. 
Thus  the  statue  grew  upward.  There  is  a tradi- 
tion, but  whether  it  is  true  or  not  we  may  never 
know,  that  Chares  himself  never  completed  the 
statue,  for  when  fitting  its  parts  together,  he 
discovered  an  error  in  his  measurements,  and  with 
chagrin  he  committed  suicide,  leaving  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work  to  another. 

The  height  of  the  Colossus  is  generally  given  as 
seventy  cubits,  or  about  one  hundred  and  five 
feet.  The  Statue  of  Liberty  in  New  York  har- 
bour stands  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  feet 
above  its  stone  pedestal.  Within  was  a spiral 
stairway  leading  to  the  head,  where,  if  mediaeval 
tradition  be  true,  was  a beacon  light  to  guide  the 
ships  to  the  city.  No  authoritative  picture  of 


The  Colossus  of  Rhodes 


THE  COLOSSUS  OF  RHODES 


163 


the  statue  has  survived,  and  so  meagre  are  the 
ancient  descriptions  that  every  attempt  to  restore 
it  would  be  in  vain.  We  only  know  that  it  was 
of  brass,  and  so  immense  in  size,  and  so  beautiful 
in  workmanship,  that  it  won  the  admiration  of  the 
world. 

The  Colossus  of  Rhodes  was  not  destined  to 
stand  long.  Earthquakes  are  frequent  in  that  part 
of  the  world,  and  in  the  year  224  B.C., fifty-six  years 
after  the  statue  was  erected,  the  island  was  vio- 
lently shaken.  Probably  the  stone  masonry  of  its 
foundation  was  not  sufficiently  strong  to  withstand 
the  shock.  It  cracked ; the  statue  swayed  back  and 
forth,  and  fell  with  a crash.  In  the  fall  the  sec- 
tions were  wrenched  apart,  and  upon  the  rocks  the 
Colossus  lay  like  a huge  dismembered  giant. 

The  fame  of  the  statue  had  spread  to  all  lands, 
and  the  report  of  its  destruction  caused  general 
regret.  At  once  it  was  proposed  to  restore  it. 
From  the  cities  throughout  Greece,  and  from 
Egypt,  and  even  from  the  hostile  Macedonians, 
came  offers  of  assistance.  The  oracle  at  Delphi 
was  consulted  to  learn  the  will  of  the  gods,  but 
the  oracular  response,  perhaps  controlled  by  some 
rival  interest,  forbade  its  restoration. 


164 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


The  city  of  Rhodes,  too,  suffered  severely  from 
the  earthquake;  its  shipping  declined;  its  pros- 
perity departed,  and  the  great  statue  was  left  to 
lie  unmolested  on  the  rocks.  Three  centuries 
later,  when  Pliny  visited  the  island,  the  brass 
giant  was  still  prostrate.  Wondering  at  its  size, 
he  wrote : 

Most  worthy  of  admiration  is  the  colossal  statue  of 
the  sun  which  stood  formerly  at  Rhodes,  and  was  the 
work  of  Chares  the  Lindian,  no  less  than  seventy 
cubits  in  height.  The  statue,  fifty-six  years  after  it 
was  erected,  was  thrown  down  by  an  earthquake, 
but  even  as  it  lies,  it  excites  our  wonder  and  imagina- 
tion. Few  men  can  clasp  the  thumb  in  their  arms, 
and  the  fingers  are  larger  than  most  statues.  Where 
the  limbs  are  broken  asunder,  vast  caverns  are  seen 
yawning  in  the  interior.  Within,  too,  are  to  be  seen 
large  masses  of  rocks,  by  the  aid  of  which  the  artist 
steadied  it  while  erecting  it. 

Efforts  were  made  to  restore  the  prosperity  of 
Rhodes,  but  the  city  continued  to  decline.  In  the 
year  43  B.c.,  the  Roman  Cassius  plundered  it  be- 
cause the  Rhodians  would  not  pay  him  the  forty- 
five  thousand  talents  he  demanded.  The  next 
year  it  became  a part  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and 
its  ships  were  burned.  In  155  a.d.,  an  earthquake 
completely  destroyed  the  city.  In  653  the  Arabs, 


THE  COLOSSUS  OF  RHODES 


165 


whose  power  had  been  rapidly  spreading  toward 
the  west,  took  possession  of  the  island.  There 
upon  the  rocks  the  Colossus  still  lay.  It  was  in 
the  year  672  that  the  Arab  conquerers,  under  the 
Caliph  Moawia,  sold  the  fallen  statue  to  a Jew 
of  Homs  as  old  metal.  Tradition  says  that  the 
Jew  loaded  the  brass  onto  nine  hundred  camels, 
and,  carrying  it  to  Loryma,  sold  it  to  the  sword 
makers.  One  author,  estimating  the  weight  of  a 
camel  load  at  eight  hundred  pounds,  asserts  that 
the  brass  of  the  statue  weighed  three  hundred  and 
sixty  tons. 

In  time  the  Venetians,  and  later  the  Italians, 
took  the  island.  In  1309  the  Knights  of  St.  John 
of  Jerusalem  captured  it  and  rebuilt  the  city,  but 
every  trace  of  the  statue  had  long  since  disap- 
peared; even  the  place  where  it  stood  was  for- 
gotten. Again  the  city  flourished.  Twelve  years 
before  Columbus  sailed  toward  America,  Moham- 
med II.,  the  Turk,  failed  in  his  attempt  to  take 
the  island.  In  1522  the  Sultan  Suleiman  besieged 
it  with  two  hundred  thousand  men,  and  eighty 
thousand  of  them  fell  before  the  knights  surren- 
dered and  were  expelled.  Since  then  Rhodes  has 
remained  in  Moslem  hands.  The  city  still  exists, 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


1 66 


but  the  entire  population  of  the  island  numbers 
but  thirty  thousand.  Perhaps  among  its  two 
thousand  Jews  are  descendants  of  the  Jew  of  Homs, 
who  bought  the  metal  of  the  famous  statue  and 
sold  it  to  be  converted  into  instruments  of  war. 

Should  you  visit  Rhodes  today  you  would  find 
an  abundance  of  traces  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John. 
There  stand  their  city  walls,  and  perhaps  some  of 
their  houses  in  the  one  long  street  of  the  modern 
city.  The  ruins  of  the  amphitheatre  of  the  early 
days  still  exist,  and  fallen  marble  columns  mark 
the  site  of  the  ancient  senate  house.  The  peasant, 
tilling  the  fields  about  the  city,  now  and  then 
uncovers  the  pedestals  of  ancient  statues,  and 
wonders  what  they  were.  You  may  visit  the  old 
rock  mole,  and  the  little  harbour  now  filled  with 
sand,  but  you  will  look  in  vain  for  the  place  where 
the  famous  Colossus  stood. 


THE  SEVENTH  WONDER 


THe  Pharos  of  Alexandria 


167 


The  Pharos  of  -Alexandria 


OFF  the  coast  of  Egypt,  where  the  western 
branch  of  the  river  Nile  flows  into  the 
Mediterranean,  there  was  once  a small 
island  of  an  oblong  shape.  It  was  scarcely  more 
than  a calcareous  rock  to  which  a thin  veneer  of 
soil  had  clung,  and  the  soil  was  so  saturated  with 
the  salt  of  the  sea  that  little  other  than  figs  would 
thrive  upon  it.  But  figs  flourished  there  wonder- 
fully, and  the  natives,  forgetting  the  ancient  name 
Pharos,  called  the  island  the  Garden  of  the  Fig 
Trees.  The  surrounding  sea  abounded  with  reefs, 
threatening  the  approaching  ships,  and  that  is 
perhaps  the  reason  why  the  island,  lying  as  it  did 
at  the  very  entrance  to  Egypt,  was  never  more 
than  a haunt  for  the  pirates  who  plied  their  trade 
along  the  coast.  On  the  opposite  mainland,  less 
than  a mile  away,  was  the  little  Egyptian  town  of 
Rakotis ; farther  on  beyond  the  town  lay  the  large 
lake  of  Mariotis.  In  very  ancient  times  an  Egyp- 
tian temple  stood  at  Rakotis,  and  there,  too,  was 

169 


170 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


a military  station  to  protect  the  valley  from  the 
unwelcome  stranger.  Had  the  Egyptians  been 
a seafaring  nation,  like  the  Phoenicians,  Rakotis 
would  have  rivalled  the  great  cities  of  Thebes  and 
Memphis. 

In  the  year  332  B.C.,  Alexander  the  Great  made 
Egypt  a part  of  his  empire.  Though  that  empire 
included  nearly  all  the  known  world,  it  could 
hardly  have  been  said  to  possess  a capital.  To 
build  a city  surpassing  all  others  in  grandeur,  and 
worthy  of  his  royal  residence,  was  Alexander’s 
ambition.  There  is  a story  told  that  one  night  in 
a dream,  an  aged  man  appeared  and  advised  him 
to  select  the  mainland  by  the  island  for  its  site. 
In  obedience  to  the  vision  Alexander  visited  Rako- 
tis and  the  island,  and  decided  that  there  the  city 
should  be  built.  The  advice  of  the  old  man  in  the 
vision  was  good,  for  the  little  strip  of  land  be- 
tween the  lake  and  the  sea,  with  the  adjoining 
island,  so  well  protected  by  nature,  at  the  entrance 
to  the  richest  valley  in  the  world,  and  with  a 
climate  unsurpassed,  was  the  ideal  seat  for  the 
government  of  his  world  empire.  With  his  own 
hand  Alexander  marked  out  the  boundary  of  the 
city  by  strewing  flour  instead  of  the  customary 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  17 1 


lime  along  the  ground,  but  the  birds  came  and  ate 
up  the  flour.  It  was  not  an  unfavourable  omen, 
so  the  diviners  said,  and  again  he  marked  out 
the  boundaries  of  the  city  larger  than  before. 
With  him  was  Dinocrates,  the  architect.  It  was 
Dinocrates  who  proposed  to  carve  Mt.  Athos  into 
a huge  statue  of  Alexander,  a statue  so  immense 
that  its  left  hand  would  have  held  a walled  city, 
and  through  its  right  a river  would  have  flowed. 
It  was  Dinocrates  who  was  one  of  the  builders  of 
the  temple  of  the  goddess  Diana  of  Ephesus,  and 
it  was  Dinocrates  whom  Alexander  commanded 
to  build  his  new  city. 

And  the  city  of  Alexandria  was  worthy  of  the 
great  architect  and  of  his  royal  master.  It  was 
fifteen  miles  in  circumference,  so  the  ancient 
writers  say,  and  was  surrounded  with  double  walls, 
fragments  of  which  remain  to  this  day.  Its  streets 
were  laid  out  in  squares,  and  two  great  avenues, 
intersecting  at  right  angles  in  the  centre  of  the 
city,  were  two  hundred  feet  wide.  Wonderful 
buildings  were  erected, — royal  palaces,  temples 
where  both  Greeks  and  Egyptians  met  in  worship, 
theatres,  libraries,  museums,  and  scores  of  others 
which  were  once  world  famous.  The  little  island 


172 


THE  SEVEN  BONDERS 


of  Pharos  in  the  harbour  ceased  to  be  an  island, 
for  Dinocrates  connected  it  with  the  mainland  by 
a causeway,  or  the  Heptastadion,  a mile  long. 
Thus  the  harbour  was  divided,  and  even  now  the 
western  harbour  is  the  best  on  the  Egyptian  coast. 
Alexandria  flourished.  It  attracted  the  trade  of 
the  old  Phoenician  city  of  Tyre.  Thither  the 
Jews  flocked  in  great  numbers.  It  surpassed 
Carthage,  and  soon  it  became  the  second  city  in 
the  world,  acknowledging  only  Rome  as  a rival. 
It  was  the  great  centre  of  trade,  of  culture  and 
philosophy.  There  was  the  famous  Alexandrian 
library.  There  for  three  hundred  years  the 
Ptolemaic  kings  of  Egypt  made  their  homes.  The 
population  was  estimated  at  three  hundred  thou- 
sand free  citizens  and  as  many  slaves,  or  it  was 
half  as  large  again  as  at  the  present  time. 

But  Alexander  the  Great  was  destined  never 
to  see  the  city  that  bore  his  name.  No  sooner 
had  he  commanded  it  to  be  built  than  he  left  it  in 
charge  of  his  viceroy  Cleomenes,  while  he  marched 
away  to  conquer  other  lands.  In  the  hot  marshy 
plains  of  Babylonia,  the  fever,  so  prevalent  there, 
seized  him,  and  on  the  night  of  June  13,  323  B.C., 
— tradition  says  it  was  during  a drinking  bout, — 


Ptolemy  Soter 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  173 


he  died,  or  he  was  murdered.  His  body  was 
carried  in  state  to  Alexandria,  and  in  the  Soma, 
as  his  mausoleum  at  the  intersecting  of  the  great 
avenues  of  the  city  was  called,  he  was  buried. 

Alexander’s  great  empire  was  divided  among  his 
generals,  and  Egypt  fell  to  Ptolemy.  It  was  the 
same  Ptolemy  to  whom  the  title  of  Soter  or  Saviour 
was  later  given  for  saving  the  island  of  Rhodes 
from  Demetrius  of  Macedonia.  It  was  he,  too, 
who  began  the  construction  of  the  great  light- 
house on  the  island  of  Pharos.  He  died  before 
the  lighthouse  was  completed,  but  his  son,  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus,  during  the  years  285  to  247  B.C., 
brought  the  work  to  an  end. 

Unfortunately  the  ancient  writers  have  given 
us  meagre  descriptions  of  the  lighthouse  which 
they  classed  among  the  Seven  Wonders  of  the 
World.  Pliny,  the  Roman,  who  perished  at  Pom- 
peii during  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  79  A.D., 
has  given  the  fullest  early  account.  He  says: 

There  is  another  building,  too,  that  is  highly  cele- 
brated ; the  tower  that  was  built  by  the  king  of  Egypt 
on  the  island  of  Pharos  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbour 
of  Alexandria.  The  cost  of  its  erection  was  eight 
hundred  talents,  they  say;  and  not  to  omit  the  magna- 


174 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


nimity  that  was  shown  by  King  Ptolemasus  on  this 
occasion,  he  gave  permission  to  the  architect,  Sostratus 
of  Cnidus,  to  inscribe  his  name  upon  the  edifice  itself. 
The  object  of  it  is,  by  the  light  of  its  fires  at  night, 
to  give  warning  to  ships,  of  the  neighbouring  shoals, 
and  to  point  out  to  them  the  entrance  to  the  harbour. 
At  the  present  day  there  are  similar  fires  lighted  up 
in  numerous  places,  Ostia  and  Ravenna  for  example. 
The  only  danger  is  that  when  these  fires  are  kept 
burning  without  intermission,  they  may  be  mistaken 
for  stars,  the  flames  having  very  much  that  appearance 
at  a distance. 

It  is  a meagre  description,  so  brief  that  it  teaches 
us  nothing  of  the  appearance  of  the  tower.  For- 
tunately the  lighthouse  was  still  standing  when 
the  Arabs  invaded  Egypt  in  the  year  616  a.d. 
They  never  ceased  to  admire  it,  and  to  weave 
legends  about  it,  and  their  descriptions,  sifted  of 
the  legendary,  present  a good  picture  of  this 
wonder  of  the  world. 

It  was  Ptolemy  Soter  who  first  conceived  the 
idea  of  building  a lighthouse,  and  for  its  site  he 
selected  the  eastern  end  of  the  little  island  of 
Pharos,  for  there  it  might  warn  the  approaching 
ships  of  the  surrounding  reefs.  Sostratus,  of 
Cnidus,  its  builder,  was  an  architect  of  renown. 
The  Arabs,  however,  who  have  always  been  fond 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  175 


of  weaving  the  name  of  Alexander  into  their  tradi- 
tions, say  that  he  built  it,  and  that  before  he 
selected  the  material  for  its  foundation,  “he  threw 
stone,  brick,  granite,  gold,  silver,  copper,  lead, 
iron,  glass,  and  all  kinds  of  minerals  and  metals 
into  the  sea  to  test  them.  . . . When  they  were 
taken  out  and  examined  the  glass  alone  was  found 
of  full  weight,  and  unimpaired.  So  glass  was 
chosen.”  The  glass,  so  the  Arabs  tell  us,  was 
shaped  into  the  form  of  crabs,  and  upon  them  the 
lighthouse  was  built.  As  crabs  of  metal  were 
used  for  the  foundations  of  the  obelisks  which 
stood  in  the  city,  it  is  possible  that  the  Arabs  sup- 
posed that  the  foundation  of  the  lighthouse  was 
of  a similar  form.  Perhaps  the  Arabs  were  correct 
in  saying  that  the  tower  was  built  of  the  hardest 
Tiburite  white  stone,  bedded  in  molten  lead,  and 
so  firmly  set  that  the  joints  could  not  be  loosened. 

Neither  the  ancients  nor  the  Arabs  have  given 
us  the  dimensions  of  the  base  of  the  tower;  we 
shall  probably  never  know  them.  Of  its  height 
there  are  conflicting  accounts,  varying  from  four 
hundred  to  six  hundred  feet.  The  Arab  writer 
Idrisi  says:  “Its  height  is  three  hundred  cubits, 
taking  three  palms  to  the  cubit,  and  so  its  height  is 


176 


THE  SEVEN  BONDERS 


one  hundred  statures  of  men.”  Probably  he  was 
not  far  from  correct. 

Unlike  the  modern  lighthouse,  which  is  usually 
a round  tower  resembling  a single  shaft  reaching 
into  the  air,  the  Pharos  consisted  of  several  stages, 
each  smaller  than  the  one  beneath  it.  That  each 
stage  was  of  a different  form  is  certain,  yet  it  is 
only  a tradition  which  claims  that  the  three  stories 
of  the  first  stage  were  hexagonal,  that  those  of 
the  second  stage  were  square,  and  all  above  were 
circular.  The  Arabs,  who  actually  saw  the  light- 
house while  it  was  still  in  a perfect  condition, 
describe  it  as  having  four  stages.  The  first  was 
square.  Upon  its  summit,  12 1 cubits,  or  about 
180  feet,  above  its  base,  was  a broad  terrace,  com- 
manding a wide  view  of  the  sea.  It  was  decorated 
with  columns  and  balustrades  and  ornaments  of 
marble.  The  second  stage,  of  about  the  same 
height,  was  octagonal;  upon  its  summit  was  a 
terrace  commanding  a still  wider  view  over  the 
sea.  The  third  stage  was  circular,  and  it  too  was 
surmounted  with  a terrace.  The  fourth,  which 
was  open,  consisted  of  tall  bronze  columns  sup- 
porting the  dome  at  the  very  top.  There  in  the 
open  space  beneath  the  dome,  where  the  view  out 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  i 77 


over  the  sea  extended  perhaps  a hundred  miles, 
were  the  lanterns  and  the  fireplaces  and  the  won- 
derful mirror  to  signal  to  the  ships.  The  only 
decorations  upon  the  exterior  walls  seem  to  have 
been  the  small  windows  to  admit  the  light.  Upon 
the  base  of  the  first  stage  was  an  inscription  cut 
into  the  marble.  It  read : 

“King  Ptolemy,  to  the  Gods,  the  Saviours,  for 
the  Benefit  of  Sailors.” 

But  if  we  may  believe  an  ancient  legend,  the 
architect  Sostratus  was  unwilling  that  the  royal 
builder  should  long  enjoy  the  credit  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  tower.  Sostratus,  so  the  story 
says,  first  engraving  his  own  name  in  the  solid 
marble,  covered  it  over  with  cement,  and  in  the 
hardened  cement  he  cut  the  royal  inscription. 
In  time  the  cement  crumbled  away,  and  then  the 
inscription,  appearing  in  a new  form,  read : 

“Sostratus,  the  Cnidian,  to  the  Gods,  the  Sav- 
iours, for  the  Benefit  of  Sailors.” 

Thus  the  architect  obtained  all  the  credit  due 
him,  and  more. 

Of  the  interior  of  the  Pharos  we  know  only  the 
little  that  the  imaginative  Arabs  have  told  us. 
A shaft  reached  from  the  foundation  through  the 

12 


i78 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


centre  to  the  very  summit,  up  which  the  fuel  for 
the  fires  and  the  other  necessaries  were  raised  by 
a windlass.  A spiral  stairway,  encased  with 
marble  slabs,  encircled  the  central  shaft ; above 
the  second  stage  the  stairway  and  the  shaft  occu- 
pied the  entire  structure.  The  third  stage,  there- 
fore, which  was  circular,  was  probably  not  far 
from  twenty  feet  in  diameter.  Instead  of  a stair- 
way, the  Arabs  tell  us  that  an  inclined  plane  led 
up  the  first  two  stages,  and  so  gentle  was  the  slope 
that  a loaded  horse  might  be  driven  into  the  highest 
of  the  chambers.  It  is  certain  that  such  inclined 
planes  were  built  in  ancient  structures ; one  may 
now  ride  a horse  to  the  gallery  in  the  old  Church 
of  Saint  Sophia  in  Constantinople. 

The  vast  space  in  the  several  stories  of  the  two 
lower  stages  was  occupied  with  chambers,  yet 
neither  their  number  nor  their  arrangement  may 
now  be  known.  One  Arab  historian  says  that 
they  were  more  than  three  hundred  in  number, 
and  so  intricately  arranged  that  no  stranger  could 
find  his  way  among  them  without  a guide.  An- 
other, with  still  greater  imagination,  informs  us 
that  when  a party  of  Moors  on  horseback  entered 
the  lighthouse,  they  lost  their  way,  and  coming 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  179 


to  a crevice  in  the  glass  foundation  upon  which 
they  thought  the  structure  was  built,  many  of 
them  fell  within  and  perished.  The  purposes 
the  chambers  served  we  may  only  conjecture,  yet 
we  are  told  that  in  some  of  them  lived  the  keepers 
of  the  lighthouse;  in  others  were  the  storerooms, 
and  the  lower  ones  may  have  been  barracks  for 
the  soldiers. 

But  the  greatest  of  the  marvels  of  the  Pharos 
was  the  mirror  on  the  summit.  To  the  conquering 
Arabs,  it,  rather  than  the  structure  beneath,  was 
the  greatest  of  wonders,  and  strange  are  the  tales 
they  related  of  it.  There  is  a tradition  that  in 
the  ancient  Egyptian  town  of  Rakotis  was  a dome 
on  a pillar  of  brass,  upon  which  was  a mirror  five 
spans  in  diameter,  and  perhaps  that  of  the  Pharos 
was  modelled  from  it.  The  mirror  of  the  ancients 
was  generally  of  polished  metal,  but  as  to  the 
material  of  the  Pharos  mirror  the  writers  disagree. 
One  says  that  it  was  a transparent  stone;  another 
calls  it  Chinese  iron  or  polished  steel;  a third,  prob- 
ably correctly,  claims  that  it  was  finely  wrought 
glass.  Of  its  size  we  know  nothing  excepting  it 
was  so  large  that  once  when  the  Arabs  removed  it 
they  were  unable  to  raise  it  back  to  its  place. 


i8o 


THE  SEVEN  BONDERS 


Nor  is  it  strange  that  to  the  Arabs  the  mirror 
was  a marvel,  for  they  believed  that  to  one  stand- 
ing beneath  it,  ships  out  at  sea,  far  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  human  eye,  were  visible.  This  story 
has  led  to  the  supposition  that  the  mirror  was 
shaped  like  a lens,  and  that  the  invention  of  the 
telescope  was  anticipated  by  the  architect  Sostra- 
tus.  It  was  said,  too,  that  one  might  see  in  the 
mirror  all  that  was  passing  in  the  distant  city  of 
Constantinople,  the  movements  of  the  armies, 
the  departure  of  the  fleet,  and  that  as  the  ships 
approached  the  powerful  mirror  was  turned  to 
reflect  the  rays  of  the  sun  upon  them  and  burn 
them  while  still  in  midocean.  Apart  from  the 
Arab  tales,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  mirror  reflected 
the  sun’s  rays  farther  than  the  eye  could  reach,  a 
hundred  miles  or  more  out  to  sea,  while  the  tower 
was  still  invisible.  In  Egypt  clouds  seldom  hide 
the  face  of  the  sun,  yet  if  the  sun  were  invisible, 
from  the  fireplaces  on  the  summit  of  the  Pharos 
rose  columns  of  smoke  to  guide  the  sailors,  and  at 
night  the  lanterns,  like  stars,  sent  out  their  less 
powerful  lights. 

The  cost  of  the  construction  of  the  Pharos,  so 
the  ancients  have  said,  was  eight  hundred  talents. 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  181 


If  the  Attic  talent  was  meant,  that  was  equivalent 
to  about  $825,000  in  our  money,  but  if  the  Egyp- 
tian talent,  it  was  twice  that  sum;  yet  even  that 
was  a trifling  amount  for  so  stupendous  a struc- 
ture. Probably  the  labour  was  forced,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  expense  was  for  the  food  of  the 
workmen. 

Such  was  the  wonderful  Pharos,  which  in  height 
was  unequalled  in  the  ancient  world,  and  which 
compares  with  the  tallest  of  our  buildings.  Prob- 
ably it  towered  into  the  air  three  times  as  high  as 
any  lighthouse  of  modern  times.  There  it  stood 
century  after  century  through  the  many  changes 
in  the  history  of  Egypt.  Alexandria  prospered 
until  only  Rome  was  superior;  the  power  of  the 
Ptolemies  passed  away;  in  the  year  80  B.C.,  Alex- 
andria became  a Roman  city,  and  the  names  of 
Caesar,  Antony,  and  Cleopatra  were  associated 
with  it.  Other  centuries  passed  and  Alexandria 
became  Christian ; Rome  declined,  yet  the  Pharos, 
unaffected  by  time,  proudly  stood  to  rule  over 
the  sea. 

In  Mecca  the  Prophet  Mohammed  was  born. 
Like  wildfire  his  new  religion  spread  over  the 
world  wherever  his  victorious  armies  marched. 


1 82 


THE  SEVEN  BONDERS 


In  640  a.d.,  Amr,  the  great  Arabian  general,  after 
subduing  all  Egypt,  besieged  Alexandria  for  four- 
teen months,  before  it  fell  into  his  hands.  Then 
he  wrote  home  to  the  Caliph  Omar  that  he  had 
taken  a city  of  4000  palaces,  4000  baths,  400 
temples  and  theatres,  12,000  shops,  and  40,000 
Jews  paying  tribute.  The  great  library  had  been 
partly  destroyed  during  the  siege  by  Julius  Caesar, 
but  it  is  said  that  200,000  of  the  700,000  books  it 
once  contained  still  remained.  The  zealous  Amr 
saw  the  great  collection  of  books  and  exclaimed: 
“If  these  writings  of  the  Greeks  agree  with  the 
books  of  God,  they  are  useless  and  need  not  be 
preserved;  if  they  disagree,  they  are  pernicious, 
and  ought  to  be  destroyed.”  So  the  valuable 
old  books  of  the  library  were  used  for  fuel  in  the 
four  thousand  baths  of  the  city,  and  they  sufficed 
for  their  furnaces  for  six  months. 

Still  the  light  of  the  Pharos  shone,  no  longer  to 
welcome  home  the  ships  of  the  Greeks,  but  of  the 
Arabs.  It  seems  that  the  Arabs,  poor  sailors  that 
they  were,  still  maintained  the  fires,  and  continued 
to  relate  strange  tales  of  the  mirror,  tales  such  as 
Arabs  can  relate  of  the  things  they  do  not  under- 
stand. Upon  the  Pharos,  so  they  said,  stood  two 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  183 


bronze  statues.  One  of  them,  raising  its  right 
hand  with  the  rising  of  the  sun,  pointed  to  the 
fiery  orb  all  day  long,  and  only  at  evening,  when 
the  sun  sank  below  the  western  horizon,  did  the 
hand  fall  to  rest  for  the  night.  The  other  statue 
was  even  more  marvellous.  It  stood  silently 
watching  over  the  sea  and  only  raised  its  hand  to 
point  to  the  approaching  enemy.  Were  the  warn- 
ing unheeded,  and  if  the  enemy  drew  nearer,  the 
statue  cried  out  with  so  mighty  a voice  that  it 
could  be  heard  for  miles  around  to  arouse  the  people 
to  action.  This  tale,  savouring  of  the  Arabian 
Nights,  seems  to  have  no  basis  of  truth,  for  it  is 
doubtful  if  two  statues  ever  stood  upon  the  sum- 
mit of  the  Pharos. 

The  wonderful  mirror  constructed  to  aid  the 
ships  of  the  Greeks  finally  caused  their  destruc- 
tion; at  least  the  Arabs  said  that  whenever  the 
bronze  sentinel  upon  the  lighthouse  summit  pointed 
to  the  Greeks  approaching  from  the  sea,  and  with 
its  mighty  voice  gave  warning  to  its  Arab  masters 
below,  the  mirror,  turned  to  reflect  the  rays  of  the 
western  sun  upon  the  ships,  consumed  them  and  all 
on  board  with  fire.  The  Greeks  were  in  despair, 
for  the  statue  and  the  mirror  were  against  them, 


THE  SEVEN  WONDERS 


184 


and  there  was  no  longer  hope  of  regaining  the  lost 
city.  At  length,  during  the  reign  of  the  Caliph 
Al-Walid,  a courtier  of  the  Greek  Emperor  re- 
solved to  destroy  the  Pharos  by  stratagem.  Laden 
with  rich  gifts  for  the  Caliph,  he  fled  to  Alexandria, 
and  professed  his  desire  to  become  a Moslem.  His 
gifts  were  accepted.  Soon  he  was  accounted  one 
of  the  most  faithful  of  the  Faithful,  and  a close 
friend  of  the  Caliph.  No  sooner  had  he  won  the 
confidence  of  the  Arabs  than  he  related  tales  of 
vast  treasures  of  gold  and  of  jewels  buried  in 
Syria.  Thus  he  aroused  the  cupidity  of  the  cred- 
ulous Caliph,  who  sent  expeditions  of  treasure 
seekers  to  Syria;  the  treasures,  as  the  Greek  had 
arranged,  were  found  and  brought  home.  The 
Caliph’s  desire  for  hidden  wealth  was  increased, 
and  his  Greek  friend  told  him  of  more  wonderful 
treasures  buried  beneath  the  Pharos.  To  increase 
the  faith  of  the  credulous  Caliph  the  priests  were 
bribed  to  bring  books  telling  of  the  treasures. 
At  once  Al-Walid  despatched  troops  to  the  Pharos. 
The  mirror  was  removed  from  the  summit  and  half 
of  the  lighthouse  was  torn  down  before  the  plot  was 
discovered.  The  work  of  destruction  then  ceased, 
and  when  search  was  made  for  the  treacherous 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  185 


Greek,  it  was  found  that  he  had  fled  in  the  dark- 
ness of  night . The  Arabs  then  restored  the  tower 
with  bricks,  but  they  were  unable  to  build  it  to 
its  former  height.  They  sought  to  raise  the  mir- 
ror to  the  summit  of  their  brick  tower,  but  it  was 
so  heavy  that  they  could  not.  Some  say  that  in 
the  effort  the  mirror  fell  and  was  broken  to  pieces ; 
there  is  probably  some  truth  to  the  story. 

The  Arabs  were  never  a seafaring  people. 
Their  ships  were  few,  and  they  had  little  use  for 
the  Pharos.  With  the  wonderful  magic  mirror 
and  the  statues  no  longer  to  aid  them,  the  light- 
house served  their  enemies  rather  than  themselves, 
and  the  fires  were  no  longer  burning.  In  the  year 
875  Ahmed  ibn  Tulun  had  a wooden  cupola  con- 
structed on  the  summit,  and  to  it  the  muezzin 
climbed  to  call  the  people  to  prayer.  So  the 
Pharos,  or  the  Minara,  as  the  Arabs  called  it, 
became  a minaret,  and  to  this  very  day  with  every 
Moslem  mosque  there  is  a tower  or  minaret, 
suggestive  of  the  Pharos  of  Alexandria.  Thus 
a new  word  was  given  to  most  of  the  languages  of 
the  world. 

But  the  Pharos,  which  had  already  stood  for 
a thousand  years,  was  not  destined  to  continue 


THE  SEVEN  JVONDERS 


1 86 


for  ever.  The  wind  blew  its  wooden  cupola  away 
to  sea.  Its  foundations  began  to  weaken,  and  on 
the  28th  of  December,  955,  an  earthquake  threw 
down  thirty  cubits  of  its  summit.  In  969,  when 
the  city  of  Cairo  was  built,  Alexandria  was  neg- 
lected for  the  new  inland  city.  However,  in  1 182, 
while  the  lower  half  of  the  Pharos  was  yet  stand- 
ing to  the  height  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
cubits,  a domed  mosque  was  built  upon  its  summit 
that  the  Faithful  might  pray  high  up  where  the 
air  was  cooled  by  the  breezes  from  the  sea.  In 
1375,  when  another  earthquake  visited  Alexandria, 
only  the  lower  stage  of  the  Pharos  survived,  and 
that,  badly  shattered,  soon  fell  to  a heap  of  ruins. 
In  1498,  when  the  passage  around  Africa  to  India 
was  discovered,  and  the  ships  began  to  pass  that 
way,  another  blow  was  given  to  Alexandria.  The 
city  declined;  the  ruins  of  the  Pharos  gradually 
disappeared,  or  were  used  in  the  construction  of 
a mole  in  the  harbour,  and  the  site  where  it  stood 
was  forgotten. 

Excavations  in  Alexandria  are  attended  with 
many  difficulties,  for  most  of  the  ancient  city  lies 
buried  beneath  the  modern  houses.  The  entire 
Egyptian  coast  has  subsided,  and  some  parts  of 


Along  the  Heptastadion 


THE  PHAROS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  187 


the  city  are  now  covered  by  the  sea.  The  cause- 
way, or  the  Heptastadion  which  Dinocrates  built  to 
connect  the  island  with  the  mainland,  has  grown 
with  the  sand  washed  up  by  the  sea  until  it  is  half 
a mile  wide.  It  is  now  thickly  covered  with 
houses.  Its  outer  end  is  known  as  the  Pharos,  or 
Kait  Bey,  but  all  that  is  left  of  the  island  is  the 
quarter  Ras  et-Tin,  where  the  palace  of  the  Khe- 
dive stands.  In  1898-9  a German  expedition 
sought  in  the  sea  for  the  foundation  of  the  Pharos, 
but  in  vain,  for  the  end  of  the  island  where  it  stood 
has  been  entirely  weathered  away.  Only  in  the 
modern  mole  are  there  great  stone  columns  which 
may  have  come  from  its  ruins.  A modern  light- 
house, well  worthy  of  the  present  Egypt,  stands 
nearby,  yet  it  is  insignificant  when  compared 
with  the  Pharos  which  was  the  wonder  of  all  the 
ancient  world,  and  the  like  of  which  no  modern 
man  has  ever  seen. 


The  Modern  Pharos  of  Alexandria 


INDEX 


A 

Alexander  the  Great,  65,  108, 
109,  142,  170,  172,  174 
Alexandria,  excavations  at, 
186;  founding  of,  1 70-171; 
library  of,  182;  taken  by 
Arabs,  182 
Artemis,  see  Diana 
Artemisia,  13 1,  133,  134,  135 
Astronomy  in  Egypt,  27-29 
Athena  Parthenos,  85,  86 

B 

Babylon,  age  of,  41;  building 
of,  42 ; description  of,  49,  50, 
69;  excavations  at,  69-70; 
fall  of,  52-64;  game  pre- 
serve in,  66-67;  history  of, 
41-43,  64-65;  journey  to, 
39-41 ; ruins  of,  65,  66,  70,  71 
Belshazzar,  52,  53,  57 
Berosus,  48 

Budrum,  130,  148;  see  Hali- 
carnassus 

C 

Cairo,  22 
Caria,  129 


Chares  of  Lindus,  160,  161, 
162 

Cheops,  see  Khufu. 

Chryselephantine,  83,  85,  86, 
90 

Colossus  of  Rhodes,  purpose  of, 
1 61 ; description  of,  162,  164; 
fall  of,  163;  history  of,  165 

Croesus,  52,  1O6,  118 

Cyrus,  52,  53,  54,  55,  57 

D 

Darius,  56-64 

Demetrius  of  Macedonia,  159, 
160 

Diana,  identified  with  Artemis 
of  Ortygia,  101;  as  Artemis 
Brauronia,  101-102;  statue 
of,  103;  associated  with 
Cybele,  103;  composite 
nature  of,  104;  images  of, 
113,  ii5 

Dinocrates,  109,  171 
E 

Ephesus,  104,  1 1 8,  122  fol.; 
excavations  at,  124,  125; 
gates  of,  124 

Euphrates,  41 


190 


INDEX 


G 

Grave  robbers,  21 

H 

Halicarnassus,  130,  132,  144, 
148 

Hanging  Gardens  of  Babylon, 
47,49,71 

Hecatomnus,  130,  131 
Heptastadion,  172,  187 
Herodotus,  10,  12,  13,  18-20, 
32,  49,  55-64 
Herostratus,  108 
Hillah,  68 

K 

Kaphra,  20 
Khufu,  6,  17,  24 
Koldewey,  Dr.,  70 

M 

Mamun  plunders  the  pyramid, 
22-24 

Mandeville,  Sir  John,  31-32 
Mausoleum  of  Mausolus, 
colouring  of,  141;  cost  of, 
136;  descriptions  of,  136-137, 
138-142;  excavation  of,  148- 
150;  history  of,  144-148; 
planned  by  Artemisia,  133; 
location  of,  134;  reconstruc- 
tions of,  137-138;  sculptors 
of,  134 

Mausolus,  13 1,  140,  143 
Menkaura,  20 


Mummies,  4 
Mylasa,  130,  132 

N 

Nabopolassar,  42,  43 
Nebuchadnezzar,  42,  43,  52; 
wife  of,  43;  character  of,  44, 
45,  46;  portrait  of,  44; 
building  operations  of,  46, 
47;  inscriptions  from,  46, 
47,  745  palace  of,  71 
Newton,  C.  T.,  148 

O 

Olympia,  88;  excavations  at, 
95-96 

P 

Parthenon,  85 
Pericles,  84,  85,  86 
Pharos,  architect  of,  174; 
builders  of,  173;  cost  of,  180; 
description  of,  173-178;  de- 
struction of,  184;  history  of, 
185-186;  inscription  on,  177; 
mirror  on,  179,  180,  183,  185; 
traditions  about,  174,  180, 
182 

Pharos  Island,  169,  172,  187 
Phidias,  81;  statues  by,  83,  84, 
85,  89;  troubles  of,  86,  93; 
workshop  of,  89 
Pliny,  12,  20,  30,  III,  136, 
164,  173 

Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  173 
Ptolemy  Soter,  160,  173,  174 


INDEX 


191 


Pyramid  of  Khufu,  age  of,  6, 
7;  ascent  of,  33-34;  builder 
of,  6;  casing  stones  of,  13, 
22,  25;  causeway  to,  10; 
chambers  in,  10,  14,  15,  16, 
34,  35;  cost  of,  8,  9;  dimen- 
sions of,  11,  12;  entrance  to, 
14,  21,  24;  exploration  of,  26; 
inscriptions  upon,  13,  21; 
location  of,  7,  27,  28; 

methods  of  raising  the  stones 
of,  12;  plundering  the,  21, 
22;  size  of  stones  in,  13,  16; 
stone  in,  9;  theories  con- 
cerning, 27-30;  workmen 
for,  7,  8,  10 
Pyramids,  4,  5 

R 

Rakotis,  169 

Rhodes,  Arabs  take,  165; 
Artemisia  takes,  134,  135; 
city  of,  157,  158,  164;  island 
of,  156;  siege  of,  159,  160 

S 

Scottish  Rite  Temple,  138,  141 

Seleucia,  65 

Sinacherib,  42 

Sostratus,  174,  177 

Souls  of  Egyptians,  3 

Statue  of  Zeus,  commission 


given  to  Phidias,  89;  de- 
scription of,  90;  history  of, 
94,  97 ; popularity  of,  92 
St.  Paul  at  Ephesus,  119,  12 1 

T 

Temple  of  Diana,  first,  103; 
second,  105;  third,  105; 
fourth,  106;  fifth,  or  Croesus, 
106;  sixth,  or  great,  108; 
architect,  109;  banking 
business  in,  116;  description 
of,  hi;  destruction  of,  12 1; 
excavations  in,  124,  125; 
museum  in,  115;  sanctuary 
about,  1 16;  service  in,  112 
Temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia, 
88-89,  95,  96 

W 

Walls  of  Babylon,  brick  in- 
scriptions in,  73,  74;  capture 
of,  47,  48-52 ; decorations 
upon,  76;  descriptions  of, 
47,  48-52 1 destruction  of, 
64;  dimensions  of,  73-75; 
names  of,  72,  73;  quarried 
for  bricks,  67;  ruins  of,  70-72 
Wood,  J.  T.,  124 

Z 

Zopyrus,  60 


Ji  Selection  from  the 
Catalogue  of 

C.  P.  PUTNAM  S SONS 

* 


Complete  Catalogue  sent 
on  application 


Osiris 

And 

The  Egyptian  Resurrection 

By  B.  A.  Wallis  Budge, 

M.A.,  Litt.D.,  F.S.A. 

Keeper  of  the  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  Antiquities  in  the 
British  Museum 

2 vols.  Frontispiece  in  Color.  With  nearly  200 
Illustrations,  after  Drawings  from  Egyptian  Papyri 
and  Monuments.  $10.50  net.  (Carriage,  50  cents) 

“These  two  massive  volumes  give  evidence  of  thorough 
and  careful  scholarship.  ...  It  may  well  be  believed  that 
Dr.  Budge  has  spoken  the  final  word  upon  the  religions  of 
Egypt.  . . . The  magnificent  series  of  illustrations  drawn 
from  original  sources,  together  with  numerous  original  hiero- 
glyphic texts  with  illustrative  translations,  add  immeasurably 
to  the  value  of  the  work.” — Boston  Transcript. 

“ These  two  splendid  volumes,  opulently  illustrated,  are 
of  large  interest  to  students  of  comparative  religions.  It  is 
the  signal  merit  of  Dr.  Budge  that  he  has  developed,  as 
no  other  scholar  has  done,  the  relations  between  this 
ancient  Egyptian  religion  and  the  beliefs  of  modem 
peoples  in  the  heart  of  the  African  continent — peoples 
who  were  apparently  far  remote  from  ancient  Egyptian 
influence.” — N.  Y.  Outlook. 

“The  subject  is  in  itself  fascinating  and  Dr.  Budge, 
with  his  authoritative  scholarship,  has  done  full  justice  to 
it.  The  work  is  the  result  of  great  toil  and  represents 
great  learning.  The  illustrations  are  excellent.” — 
London  Times. 

Send  for  Descriptive  Circular 


New  York  G.  P.  PllSnam’s  Sons  London 


Popular  Stories  of 
Ancient  Egypt 

By  Sir  G.  Maspero,  D.C.L.,  Oxon. 

Member  of  the  Institute  of  France;  Pro- 
fessor at  the  College  de  France ; Director- 
General  of  the  Service  of  Antiquities  in 
Egypt 

8°.  $3.50 

In  1864,  a story,  strange  as  anything  from 
The  Arabian  Nights , was  unearthed  in  the  tomb 
of  a Coptic  monk  near  Deir-el-Medineh. 
Since  then  successive  discoveries  of  other 
stories  have  been  made.  These  stories  M. 
Maspero  has  gathered  together. 

“ Such  is  the  flexible  grace  of  the  writer 
that  it  is  at  times  hard  to  believe  that  associ- 
ated with  it  is  the  rigid  accuracy  of  the  schol- 
ar, but  the  extent  and  trustworthiness  of  the 
author’s  scholarship,  elsewhere  evinced,  are 
sufficient  assurance  on  this  point.”—  Les  Debats , 


0.  P.  Putnam’s  Sons 

New  York  London 


Bismya 

or 

The  Lost  City  of  Adah 

A Story  of  Adventure,  of  Exploration,  and  of  Excavation 
among  the  Ruins  of  the  Oldest  of  the  Buried  Cities 
of  Babylonia 

By 

Edgar  James  Banks 

Field  Director  of  the  Expedition  of  the  Oriental  Explora- 
tion Fund  of  the  University  of  Chicago  to  Babylonia 

54,00  net  174  Illustrations 

In  this  volume  is  recounted  in  a popular  way  the  story 
of  adventure  and  exploration  connected  with  the  remark- 
able discoveries  made  by  the  author  in  the  Babylonian 
ruin  mound  of  Bismya.  With  the  exception  of  Tello, 
where  the  French  have  excavated  for  many  years,  no  other 
Babylonian  ruin  has  yielded  so  many  and  such  beautiful 
objects  of  ancient  art.  The  lost  city  of  Adab  was  found; 
a perfect  marble  statue  of  King  Da-udu,  the  oldest  statue 
in  the  world,  was  unearthed;  names  of  forgotten  kings  and 
rulers  were  restored  to  history;  questions  long  puzzling  to 
the  historian  and  to  the  archseologist  have  been  answered, 
and  others  have  been  presented  to  them  to  solve.  The 
story  of  the  recovery  of  this  oldest  of  civilizations  should 
appeal  not  to  the  scholar  alone,  but  to  the  reader  who  is 
interested  in  days  and  things  long  past,  and  specially  for 
him  has  it  been  written. 


G.  P.  Putnam’s  Sons 

New  York  London 


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